GIFT  OF 
SEELEY  W.  MIDI) 

and 

GEORGE  I.  COCHRAN     MEYER  ELSASSER 
OR.  JOHN  R.  HAYNES    WILLIAM  L.  HONNOLD 
JAMES  R.  MARTIN         MRS.  JOSEPH  F.SARTORI 

fe  the 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
SOUTHERN  BRANCH 


This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below 


4T9Z 


15  1( 


1 1  1928 

MAY  18   1928 
NOV  27   1928 


jUL  31  192* 
NOV  6 


SO 


MAR  1  4  1934 


Southern  Branch 
of  the 

University  of  California 


Los  Angeles 


Form  L   I 


e 


OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK  -. 


HIS  FREEDOM  AND  HIS  FUTURE. 


BY 

ATTICUS  G.  HAYGOOD,  D.D., 

PRESIDENT  OF  EMORY  COLLEGE,  OXFORD,  GA. 


NASHVILLE,  TENN. : 

SOUTHERN  METHODIST  PUBLISHING  HOUSE. 
NEW  YORK:    PHILLIPS  eft  HUNT. 
CINCINNATI :   WALDEN  &  STCTWE. 
1881. 

S79b,j 


Copyright  1881,  by 

ATTICUS   O.    HAYGOOD, 
Oxford,  Georgia. 


£ 
85  ,  I* 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.  Six  MILLIONS  OF  NEGROES 5 

II.  SOME  CHARACTERISTICS 9 

III.  HERE  TO  STAY 17 

IV.  PROVIDENCE  IN  THEIR  LOCATION 24 

V.  THE  NEGRO  FREE 39 

\> 

Sr  VI.  PROVIDENCE  IN  EMANCIPATION 46 

O> 

P^         VII.  THE  EMANCIPATION  PROCLAMATION 58 

_      VIII.  THE  FREEDMAN  MADE  A  CITIZEN 73 

M 

IX.  THE  TIME  ELEMENT  IN  THIS  PROBLEM 84 

•H 

X.  CANTERBURY  GREEN  IN  1831-1834 105 

XL  A  NATIONAL  PROBLEM 112 

XII.  THE  METHODS  OF  OUR  PROBLEM 128 

XIII.  SCHOOLS  FOR  NEGROES 144 

XIV-  SOME  WORK  GOOD  PEOPLE  ARE  DOING 158 

XV.  THE  NEGRO  AS  A  MEMBER  OF  THE  COMMUNITY....  182 

XVT.  THE  NEGRO  AND  THE  LAND 200 

XVII.  THE  AFRICAN  CHURCHES  IN  AMERICA 220 

XVIII.  THESE  AFRICAN-AMERICANS  AND  AFRICA 241 


OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 


CHAPTER   I. 

SIX  MILLIONS  OF  NEGROES. 

last  census  shows  that  there  are  nearly 
•*•  six  millions  of  negroes  in  that  part  of  the 
United  States  that  is  known  as  "  The  South." 
Comparatively  speaking,  there  are  few  of  them  in 
the  other  sections  of  the  Union — not  enough 
to  make  an  exigent  question  in  labor,  society,  or 
politics.  In  the  South  the  case  is  very  different ; 
the  negroes  are  about  one  third  of  the  whole  pop- 
ulation ;  in  some  States  nearly  one  half.  Thus,  in 
Georgia,  according  to  the  census  of  1 880,  the 
total  population  is  1,538,983  ;  the  colored  people 
number  724,765.  In  some  of  the  States  they  are 
in  the  majority. 

The  great  majority  of  the  colored  people  in  the 
Southern  States  are  pure-blood  Africans,  though 
many  lighter  skins  among  them  show  the  mixture 
of  races.  The  white  blood  betrays  itself.  This  ex- 
plains the  hasty  conclusions  of  some  observers, 
traveling  through  the  South.  They  think  that 


6  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

there  are  very  large  numbers  of  mulattoes.  They 
are  mistaken,  and  not  unnaturally.  A  score  of  black 
children  are  passed  unnoticed  ;  one  mulatto  is  ob- 
served. In  a  country  peopled  with  only  one 
race  there  might  be  as  many  children  born  out 
of  wedlock  as  there  are  mulattoes  in  any  one 
of  the  Southern  States,  but  there  would  be  no  evi- 
dence to  the  eye.  But  where  white  and  black  are 
blended  the  yellow  skin  advertises  the  origin  of  its 
owner. 

As  there  are  some  prevalent  misconceptions  on 
this  subject,  one  other  remark  may  be  allowed  at 
this  point ;  in  the  South  the  half-breeds  are  gener- 
ally found  in  towns  and  cities,  and  from  towns  and 
cities  most  tourists  derive  their  impressions  of  a 
country.  But  the  great  mass  of  the  Southern  pop- 
ulation is  rural.  Of  the  entire  Southern  population 
hardly  one  million  are  in  the  cities. 

When  this  whole  subject,  with  its  history  and 
conditions,  is  well  and  fairly  considered,  and  with 
the  passionless  attention  that  is  bestowed  upon  any 
table  of  mere  statistics,  it  will  be  concluded,  I 
think,  that  there  is  but  one  other  such  case  in  his- 
tory of  a  race  living  for  generations  within  another 
race  and  yet  keeping  its  blood  so  pure.  The  Jews 
alone  can  match  this  unique  fact.  Let  it  be  ob- 
served that  I  am  not  speaking  of  the  moralities  im- 
plied in  these  remarkable  parallels,  but  only  of 
the  fact  of  mixed  bloods.  The  Americanized-Afri- 


Six  Millions  of  Negroes.  7 

cans  increase  rapidly.  They  numbered  about  seven 
hundred  thousand  at  the  close  of  the  war  for  inde- 
pendence. They  have  multiplied  more  than  eight 
times  in  a  little  less  than  a  century.  How  many 
will  they  be  in  the  year  1991  ? 

I  apprehend  the  difficulty  of  the  subject  taken  in 
hand  in  these  pages.  The  historian  who  may  write 
of  our  times  a  century  hence  may  offend — such  is 
the  sensitiveness  and  pertinacity  of  prejudice — some 
of  the  descendants  of  those  who  are  now  concerned 
in  such  a  discussion.  But  this  he  can  do,  endeavor 
faithfully  to  state  facts  as  they  may  then  appear  to 
him.  He  will  have  many  advantages  over  any 
writer  of  the  present  time.  Much  smoke  will  have 
cleared  away,  and  with  it  much  heat  and  prejudice. 
Questions  now  in  dispute  will  have  been  finally, 
and,  let  us  hope,  happily  settled ;  experiments  now 
only  in  process  will  have  been  ended.  The  his- 
torian, in  forming  his  judgments  upon  our  times, 
will  have  the  benefit  of  results.  If  we  could  only 
foresee,  and  in  a  clear  light,  what  will  be  very  plain 
to  him,  we  would  understand  not  only  our  duties 
but  each  other  much  better  than  we  do  now.  Lord 
Bacon  dedicated  his  history  of  Henry  VII.  to 
Charles,  then  Prince  of  Wales,  and  apologized  for 
any  defect  in  the  picture  in  these  words :  "  I 
have  not  flattered  him,  but  took  him  to  life  as  well 
as  I  could,  sitting  so  far  off,  and  having  no  better 
light."  But  this  advantage  he  had,  he  did  not  sit 


8  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

too  near,  and  the  light  he  had  was  without  heat. 
An  artist  may  sit  too  near  his  subject,  and  the 
light  may  be  so  intense  or  so  crossed  as  to  blind 
or  confuse  him.  This  is  peculiarly  true  of  those 
who,  in  a  long  and  fierce  conflict,  have  felt  either 
the  exultations  of  victory  or  the  humiliations  of 
defeat. 


Some  Characteristics. 


CHAPTER  II. 

SOME  CHARACTERISTICS. 

MOST  of  these  six  millions  of  Africans  are 
very  poor.  Fifteen  years  ago  they  had  noth- 
ing but  their  trained  muscle  and  their  hope.  Of 
multitudes  of  them  this  ought  to  be  added — their 
faith  in  God. 

During  these  fifteen  years,  which  many  of  them 
have  spent  in  trying  to  find  their  reckoning  on  a 
wide  and  unknown  sea,  most  of  them  have  had  a 
sharp  struggle  for  existence.  A  very  few  have 
shown  good  capacity  for  business  and  have  accumu- 
lated handsome  properties.  A  larger  number  have 
built  themselves  humble  houses  that  are  their  own, 
and  a  few  have  got  some  foot-hold  in  the  land,  and 
are  the  owners  of  small  farms.  Most  of  them  de- 
pend for  subsistence  solely  on  their  labor.  A  very 
great  majority  of  the  whole  number  are  in  the  rural 
districts  at  work  as  hired  laborers,  or  as  tenants,  upon 
contracts  renewable  at  the  beginning  of  each  year. 

The  fact  that  the  great  body  of  them  are  on  the 
plantations  and  farms  gives  them  one  marked  ad- 
vantage over  certain  laboring  classes  of  some  States 
and  countries— they  are  not  subject  to  "  lock-outs," 


jo  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

nor  are  they  liable  to  be  thrown  out  of  employ- 
ment by  "  suspensions  "  or  by  "  panics  ;  "  for  agri- 
culture does  not  suspend.  They  are  beginning  to 
appear  upon  the  tax  books  as  land  owners.  Thus, 
in  Georgia,  according  to  the  "  Report  of  the  Comp- 
troller-general "  for  1880,  the  colored  people  own  of 
"  improved  lands,"  586,664  acres.  The  white  peo- 
ple own  29,823,581  acres  of  "improved  lands." 
That  is,  of  the  farming  lands  in  Georgia  the  negroes 
own  a  little  less  than  one  acre  in  every  fifty.  All 
things  considered,  this  is  a  very  creditable  showing 
for  them.  It  may  be  doubted  whether  the  average 
is  quite  so  high  in  other  Southern  States. 

With  few  exceptions  the  best  lands  are  owned 
by  the  white  people.  It  is  easy  to  explain  this. 
First,  the  whites  have,  as  a  rule,  been  reluctant  to 
sell  their  lands  to  anybody.  They  cling  to  the 
land ;  it  is  an  instinct.  They  have  been  doubly  re- 
luctant to  sell  lands  to  negroes ;  not  because  they 
have  felt  unkindly  to  them,  but  chiefly  because 
they  have  been  afraid  that  negro  land  owners  would 
frighten  immigrants  from  the  South.  Whether  this 
fear  is  well  grounded  may  be  doubted.  Some,  it 
may  be,  have  not  wished  to  see  the  negroes  land 
owners,  from  a  vague  prejudice,  or  a  vaguer  fear. 
This,  I  think,  is  clear  ;  the  negroes  who  own  land  in 
Georgia  are  more  satisfactory  as  citizens  and  neigh- 
bors than  those  who  do  not.  This  is  undoubtedly 
true  of  my  negro  neighbors. 


Some  Characteristics.  II 

The  majority  of  the  negroes  live  in  small  and, 
generally  speaking,  very  uncomfortable  and  ill-fur- 
nished cabins.  They  have  few  comforts.  But  this 
'gives  them  comparatively  little  trouble,  for  they  live 
very  plainly,  and  most  of  them  have  enough  to  eat, 
and,  in  winter,  wood  enough  to  keep  warm.  Most 
of  them  will  spend  their  last  dime  for  food  or  fuel ; 
if  it  come  to  the  pinch,  some  of  them  will  get  it 
elsewise,  as  will  some  white  men.  A  fence  rarely 
survives  a  cold  winter  if  it  be  close  to  a  settlement 
of  negroes.  The  average  negro  will  burn  his  own 
fence  without  hesitation.  The  necessity  generally 
arises  through  his  habit  of  putting  off  till  to-morrow 
what  he  is  not  obliged  to  do  to-day.  Many  of  them 
are  much  like  the  improvident  white  man  whose  roof 
was  out  of  repair.  His  explanation  was:  "It  don't 
leak  in  dry  weather,  and  I  wont  patch  any  man's  roof 
in  the  rain."  I  have  a  negro  neighbor  who  has 
burned  his  own  fence  and  part  of  mine  for  four 
winters  past.  Next  spring  we  will  make  a  new 
fence.  It  is  left  to  the  reader's  ingenuity  to  find 
out  my  reason  for  waiting  till  warm  weather. 

Nearly  all  of  them  are  field-hands  and  common 
laborers ;  few  of  them  are  skilled  workmen  ;  the 
best  mechanics  among  them  "  learned  their  trades  " 
before  the  war.  Free  negroes  and  Southern  white 
boys  are  alike  at  least  in  this — they  are  impatient 
of  apprenticeship.  This  is  one  reason  why  the 
South  is  behind  in  the  mechanic  arts. 


12  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

As  a  class  the  negroes  in  the  South  are  not 
systematic  in  their  plans  and  labors.  They  are  not 
thrifty,  or  frugal,  or  economical.  Few  of  them 
know  how  to  "  lay  by  for  a  rainy  day."  When  they 
were  slaves  they  never  thought  of  such  things; 
•when  sick,  or  old,  or  worn  out,  they  were  taken  care 
of  better  than  any  class  of  superannuated  laborers  in 
the  world.  The  exceptions  to  this  statement  were 
few.  No  railroad,  or  mining  company,  or  great 
manufactory,  can  match  the  care  the  "  old  masters  " 
took  of  their  disabled  or  worn-out  servants.  And 
thousands  of  the  old  servants  still  look  to  their  for- 
mer masters  for  help,  and  receive  it.  The  old  cus- 
toms made  it  unnecessary  for  the  negro  to  provide 
for  sickness  or  old  age.  Very  naturally,  therefore, 
the  habit  of  forecasting  has  not  been  largely 
acquired  among  them.  They  spend  their  money 
freely  while  it  lasts,  much  as  children  do.  Instance, 
a  colored  man,  who  lives  near  me  and  who  has  no  in- 
come but  his  wages  as  a  common  laborer,  recently 
gave  seven  dollars  for  a  flashily  bound  family  Bible, 
being  overcome  by  the  arrangement  at  the  back  of 
it  for  receiving  the  family  photographs. 

Their  weaknesses  are  perhaps  partly  in  their  blood  ; 
they  may  well  be  more  in  their  antecedents.  ( Some 
of  these  "  antecedents,"  if  may  be  remarked,  ante- 
date their  coming  to  America.)  But,  poor  as  they 
all  are,  and  thriftless  as  most  of  them  are,  they  are 
improving  in  their  condition.  The  tax  books  show 


Some  Characteristics.  13 

that  they  are  beginning  to  produce  a  little  more 
than  they  consume.  They  live  better,  dress  better, 
have  better  furniture,  than  they  had  ten  years  ago. 

Some  things  I  am  about  to  say  will  be  disputed 
by  a  good  many  people,  but  I  give  my  opinion. 
Many  of  them  drink  whisky  when  they  can  get  it. 
As  a  race,  they  are  fond  of  strong  drink,  but  I  be- 
lieve that,  as  to  sobriety,  they  will  compare  favora- 
bly with  the  poorer  class  of  common  laborers  of 
any  color  or  country.  Their  moral  code  is,  it  must 
be  admitted,  flexible  enough  to  allow  more  margin 
than  consists  with  sound  ethics.  Many  of  them 
have  some  loose  notions  on  several  of  the  funda- 
mentals of  morality;  but  they  are  not  so  bad  as 
many  have  represented  them  to  be.  Many  writers 
on  the  morals  of  the  negro  in  the  South  do  not 
consider — perhaps  do  not  know — what  are  the  facts 
in  other  countries  as  to  the  poorest  and  most  igno- 
rant of  common  laborers.  Too  much  attention  has 
been  concentrated  on  the  South  for  just  judgments 
as  to  either  the  white  people  or  the  negroes.  It 
has  been  like  reading  small  type  in  a  bright  sun- 
light— bad  reading  and  blurred  vision. 

During  the  past  summer  I  passed  over  perhaps 
as  many  as  a  thousand  miles  of  country  roads  by 
private  conveyance.  Some  negro  families  I  saw 
crowded  in  most  wretched  cabins,  but  they  were 
not  worse  than  the  illustrations  given  in  "  Harper's 
Magazine"  some  months  ago  of  attic  and  cellar 


14  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

life  in  New  York  city.  Nor  were  they  worse  than 
the  illustrations  and  letter-press  declared  to  be  the 
condition  of  a  great  multitude  of  families  who  keep 
miniature  truck-gardens  about  the  suburbs  of  our 
metropolis. 

One  of  the  saddest  facts  of  their  lot  is  that  most 
of  them  are  very  ignorant.  The  vast  majority  of 
them  are  untaught.  (Many  of  our  white  people 
are  in  the  same  condition.)  Few  ex-slaves  can 
read  at  all.  While  slavery  lasted  there  was  small 
chance  to  teach  them.  For  this  state  of  things 
the  masters  were  not  alone  to  blame.  Some  were 
taught,  nevertheless.  It  would  surprise  some  peo- 
ple to  know  how  many  of  them  were  taught  by 
"  young  masters  "  and  "  young  mistresses  "  to  read 
the  Bible.  I  made  a  faithful  effort  on  "  Uncle 
Jim,"  who  taught  me  to  ride  and  to  plow;  who 
was  my  skillful  instructor  in  the  lore  of  the  fields 
and  the  woods.  Whether  he  was  too  old,  or  his 
teacher  too  unskilled,  has  never  been  determined, 
but  he  never  got  beyond  "  words  of  one  syllable." 
The  house  girl,  Alice,  made  better  progress ;  a  sister 
had  her  schooling  in  hand. 

A  few  ex-slaves  have  learned  to  read  since  they 
became  free,  greatly  to  their  credit.  There  are 
some  pathetic  instances  of  old  people  learning, 
slowly  and  with  difficulty,  that  they  might  read  the 
Bible  for  themselves.  Thousands  of  the  younger 
race  can  read  and  write  and  cipher — if  not  after 


Some  Characteristics.  15 

the  best  models,  yet  profitably.  Some  of  them 
have  learned  all  these  things  after  the  best  models. 
I  have  examined,  with  a  grateful  heart,  specimens 
of  the  work  done  by  negro  boys  and  girls  in  some 
of  the  public  schools  of  the  city  of  Atlanta.  They 
were  every  whit  as  good  as  the  best  done  in  the 
white  schools  of  similar  grade.  And  thousands 
more  of  them  will  learn.  Some  of  them  "  hunger 
and  thirst  "  after  knowledge.  One  of  the  most  en,. 
couraging  indications  of  their  progress  and  uplift- 
ing is  this :  it  is  fast  becoming  a  "  point  of  honor  " 
with  colored  parents  that  their  children  learn  to 
read  and  to  write.  This  sentiment  is  entering  into 
their  "  society."  Of  this  there  can  be  no  doubt. 

•Alas,  that  there  ever  was  any  hinderance  to  their 
education !  God  be  thanked !  there  is  now,  Janu- 
ary, 1 88 1,  next  to  no  opposition  to  their  instruc- 
tion. Where  one  benighted  neighborhood  can  be 
found  where  their  education  is  opposed,  twenty  may 
be  found  where  it  is  encouraged. 

In  closing  this  chapter,  that  is  designed  to  give 
only  a  general  statement  and  rough  outline-sketch 
of  their  present  condition  and  characteristics,  a  few 
words  should  be  added  as  to  their  dispositions  and 
tempers.  They  are  kind-hearted,  generous  to  the 
distressed,  obliging,  unrevengeful.  They  love  their 
friends  and  forgive  their  enemies  more  promptly 
and  truly  than  do  many  who  have  had  better  cult- 
ure. Their  disposition  to  help  one  another  is  a 


16  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

wonder.  In  this  little  village  of  Oxford  I  have 
seen,  time  and  again,  very  poor  negroes  helping 
some  of  their  neighbors  still  poorer  than  them- 
selves. They  have  organized  many  "  societies  "  for 
the  relief  of  the  sick  and  the  afflicted.  Many  times 
I  have  known  "  burial  expenses  "  met  by  these  so- 
cieties. And  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  their 
"  finances "  are  generally  well  and  faithfully  man- 
aged. One  of  their  "  treasurers  "  has  been  for  some 
years  a  trusted  member  of  my  household.  He  has 
given  me  insight  of  their  methods.  If  he  were  not 
an  honest  man,  as  he  is,  he  has  to  give  such  rigid 
account  that  he  would  have  little  opportunity  for 
"  financiering  "  on  the  society's  funds,  even  if  he 
had  the  disposition.  The  picture  must  not  be 
drawn  in  colors  too  bright,  for,  alas !  a  colored  treas- 
urer now  and  then  imitates  some  white  treasurer  or 
cashier  so  closely  that  the  society's  funds  are  seen 
no  more  by  the  society  forever.  This,  however, 
should  be  said  for  the  negroes  in  such  a  case :  they 
call  their  unfaithful  treasurer  "  a  thief,"  they  do  not 
say  "  defaulter." 


Here  to  Stay. 


CHAPTER  III. 

HERE     TO      STAY. 

SO  far  as  man  can  see  or  devise,  these  negroes 
are  in  "the  South"  to  stay.  Common  sense, 
in  considering  this  problem,  cannot  assume  a  super- 
natural intervention  to  move  them  elsewhere.  Left  • 
to  the  natural  conditions  that  enter  into  such  ques- 
tions, there  is  no  reason  to  expect  that  these 
Americanized  Africans  will  remove  or  be  removed 
from  the  regions  where  we  now  find  the  great  mass 
of  them.  If  such  a  not-to-be-expected  migration 
should  occur,  still  leaving  them  within  the  United 
States,  the  problems  that  grow  out  of  their  pres- 
ence in  this  country  must  be  worked  out  all  the 
same.  Change  of  place  can  no  more  eliminate  this 
factor  in  our  national  equation  than  it  can  change 
the  past  history  of  these  people  in  the  United 
States. 

There  is  much  reason  to  believe  that  the  problem 
can  be  better  solved  without  a  change  of  locality. 
The  South  is  the  best  place  for  these  emancipated 
negroes,  and  the  people  of  the  South  will  yet  prove 
themselves  to  be,  of  all  people  in  the  world,  the 

fittest  to  deal  with  this  very  difficult  and  delicate 
2 


1 8  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

race-problem.  What  we  want  is  not  a  change  of 
blackboards,  but  a  thorough  study  and  a  clear  un- 
derstanding of  the  problem  itself;  also,  the  right 
spirit  all  round. 

The  conditions  of  this  problem  will  not  be  greatly 
modified  by  the  so-called  "  exodus  " — a  very  large 
word,  by  the  way,  for  the  fact  it  represents.  I  hold 
myself  bound  to  modify  my  opinions  in  the  light 
of  new  facts,  for  facts  must  govern  opinions  as  well 
as  silence  prejudices;  but  as  the  case  now  is,  it  is 
very  clear  to  me  that  the  negroes  as  a  body  will 
never  move  to  Kansas,  to  Indiana,  to  New  Mexico, 
or  to  any  State  or  Territory,  either  so  cold  in  its 
climate,  or  so  different  in  its  population,  or  so  di- 
verse in  its  conditions  of  living,  from  any  thing  they 
have  ever  known.  A  few  thousands  may  go  to 
these  States,  a  few  thousands  may  scatter  them- 
selves through  various  northern  and  western  States. 
It  is  desirable  that  they  should  do  so ;  it  will  ex- 
tend the  knowledge  of  the  difficulties  of  our  na- 
tional problem,  and  nurture  patience  in  regions 
where  patience  is  as  much  needed  as  "toleration" 
is  needed  in  the  South. 

This  we  may  certainly  depend  on ;  if  the  negroes 
were  moved  en  masse  to  some  other  section  of  our 
country,  they  would  carry  their  race-problem  with 
them.  The  problem  would,  indeed,  be  modified  ; 
perhaps  it  would  lose  none  of  its  present  difficul- 
ties; certainly  it  would  take  on  some  new  ones. 


Here  to  Stay.  19 

Wherever  the  negroes  are  in  large  numbers,  there, 
we  may  be  sure,  are  their  characteristics.  If  they 
live  in  the  midst  of  another  race,  there,  also,  are  the 
characteristics  of  that  race ;  and  these  diverse  race- 
characteristics — for  they  are  not  the  accidents  of 
place  or  special  conditions — must  somehow  adjust 
themselves  both  to  their  resemblances  and  their 
differences.  And  there  are  differences  as  well  as 
resemblances — a  simple  but  important  fact  not 
always  considered.  The  differences  as  well  as  the 
resemblances  go  deeper  than  the  skin.  Whether 
the  negroes  are  superior  or  inferior,  whether  better 
or  worse  than  white  people,  it  will  nevertheless  be 
admitted  by  candid  persons  that  a  company  of 
negroes — if  the  reader  please,  a  very  small  com- 
pany, so  small  as  to  be  socially  and  politic- 
ally powerless — are  not,  in  any  State,  or  city,  or 
town,  or  country  hamlet  in  the  United  States,  real- 
ized in  the  inmost  consciousness  of  men  to  be  just 
the  same  as  white  people.  The  negroes  themselves 
certainly  understand  and  recognize  these  differ- 
ences. These  differences  are  realized  on  the  plan- 
tations, in  the  humblest  relations  of  obscure  coun- 
try life,  as  distinctly  as  in  Washington  city,  where 
the  wisest  and  best  people  feel  (January,  1881)  that 
they  will  not  know  just  how  to  conduct  themselves 
if  the  incoming  administration  should  appoint  a 
worthy  and  capable  colored  Senator  from  Missis- 
sippi to  a  cabinet  portfolio.  How  true  and  wise  is 


2o  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

the  remark  attributed  to  the  President  elect :  "  It 
is  a  difficult  thing  always  to  behave  one's  self  prop- 
erly." 

The  preposterous  scheme  of  colonizing  the  whole 
six  millions  of  our  negro  fellow-citizens  in  some 
part  of  the  United  States,  as  Arizona,  for  example, 
has  been  mentioned  a  few  times.  Such  a  scheme 
could  never  originate  in  the  serious  thinking  of  any 
representative  Southern  man.  For  the  Southern 
people,  with  all  that  has  been  said  and  thought 
about  them,  know  the  negro  too  thoroughly  and  love 
him  too  well  to  wish  him  such  a  fate.  What  utter 
nonsense !  what  inhuman  folly !  A  negro  State  ! 
A  little  Africa  in  America !  They  would  perish  by 
starvation,  by  internal  feuds,  by  aggression  from 
sharpers,  speculators,  and  "  filibusters,"  like  those 
%  who  are  now  threatening  the  peace  of  the  Indian 
Territory.  If  the  lands  given  them  were  worth 
having,  they  would  be  taken  from  them ;  if  not, 
they  would  starve.  Those  who  know  the  history 
of  our  Indian  problem,  who  know  how  we  have 
failed  either  to  govern  or  protect  a  few  thousand 
Indians,  who  were  never  slaves,  do  not  desire 
the  government  to  undertake  the  management  or 
guardianship  of  several  millions  of  emancipated 
Africans. 

A  few  dreamy  and  sentimental  visionaries  talk 
about  solving  the  problem  at  one  masterful  stroke. 
"Move  the  whole  of  them  to  Africa;  America  is 


Here  to  Stay.  21 

for  white  people,"  they  tell  us.  While  engaged  on 
this  chapter  the  papers  brought  us  word  that  some 
member  of  Congress  has  actually  offered  some  sort 
of  a  paper  proposing  to  buy  a  large  territory  in 
some  of  the  States  of  Central  America  for  the 
wholesale  colonization  of  the  negroes  !  Such  legis- 
lators only  serve  to  illustrate  some  of  the  passing 
humors  of  American  voters. 

If  it  be  supposed  that  the  negroes  could  be  per- 
suaded to  make  a  real  "  exodus,"  and  go  to  Africa, 
or  to  any  of  these  places  prepared  for  them,  it  is 
simply  a  mistake.  If  even  one  man  in  the  United 
States  talks  of  their  enforced  colonization,  he  should 
remember  that  free  negroes,  at  least,  have  many 
"  rights  that  white  men  are  bound  to  respect."  The 
right  to  live  where  it  pleases  them,  so  long  as  they 
obey  the  laws,  is  one  of  these  rights. 

The  wholesale  colonization  of  these  people  in 
Africa  is  a  scheme  so  visionary  and  impracticable 
that  it  does  not  deserve  serious  discussion.  But  it 
may  be  looked  at  for  a  moment,  if  only  to  show  what 
some  people  forget  when  they  are  caught  in  the  cur- 
rent of  a  favorite  theory.  Suppose  we  could  move  the 
whole  six  millions  of  them  to  Africa.  What  would 
we  do  with  them  after  getting  them  there  ?  Africa 
is  a  big  country,  and  it  does  not  belong  to  us. 
Would  it  do  to  land  them  wherever  our  ships  can 
approach  the  shore,  and  then  turn  them  loose,  as 
Mr.  Seth  Green  turns  young  shad  loose  in  the 


22     .          OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

rivers,  to  find  their  way  to  life  and  fortune  as  best 
they  may  ?  This  would  be  to  turn  them  loose  to 
.  die,  or  to  relapse  into  the  savagery  of  their  ancestors. 
But  if  we  owned  enough  of  Africa,  desirable  and 
healthful  parts  of  the  continent,  to  furnish  each 
family  a  farm  ;  if,  after  getting  them  well  settled,  we 
could  secure  them  decent  government ;  if  we  could 
make  sure  that  they  would  not  (except  those  who 
died  promptly)  relapse  into  the  heathenism  from 
wMch  their  ancestors  were  taken  generations  ago 
by  the  cruel  English  and  New-English  sailors;  if, 


IN*    "•-• ' 

in  a  word,  all  the  conditions  of  successful  coloniza- 
tion could  be  met,  how  are  we  to  get  them  there  ? 
Suppose  we  take  five  hundred  to  the  ship-load, 


employ  one  hundred  ships,  and  make  two  voyages 
each  year;  we  could,  at  this  rate,  get  across  one 
hundred  thousand  annually.  But  they  are  born 
faster  than  this.  If,  however,  all  the  difficulties  of 
transportation  could  be  overcome,  the  cruelty  of 
such  a  wholesale  deportation  would  be  equaled  by 
but  one  thing  in  their  eventful  history,  namely,  the 
cruelty  of  bringing  them  from  Africa  as  they  were 
brought  by  the  slavers. 

This,  I  think,  may  be  settled  down  upon ;  these 
negroes,  ever  increasing,  will,  for  the  most  part,  stay 
right  where  they  are,  in  the  South.  But  if  they 
should  be,  as  is  most  unlikely,  diffused  with  some- 
thing like  equality  of  distribution,  throughout  the 
United  States,  the  problem  would  be  diffused,  that 


Here  to  Stay.  23 

is  all,  and  with  much  increment  of  confusion  and 
difficulty. 

It  seems  very  clear ;  this  race-problem  is  likely  to 
be  our  problem  as  a  Nation  always.  It  is  certainly, 
at  this  time,  a  problem  that  the  whole  people  should, 
and  that  the  Southern  people  must,  seriously  but 
calmly  consider. 

NOTE. — After  this  book  was  written,  a  friend,  Mr.  F.  R.  Richardson, 
the  Washington  city  correspondent  of  the  "Atlanta  Constitution," 
furnished  me  some  important  statistics,  taken  from  the  official  records 
in  the  office  of  the  superintendent  of  the  last  census.  I  quote  the 
following  statements:  "The  total  negro  population  is  6,577,497. 
The  increase  in  the  total  population  during  the  last  ten  years  is  30.06 
per  cent. ;  the  increase  in  the  white  population  is  28.82  per  cent.;  the 
increase  in  the  colored  population  is  34.78  per  cent." 

Wise  people  will  study  these  figures. 


24  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 


T 


CHAPTER  IV. 

PROVIDENCE  IN  THEIR  LOCATION. 

k HE  African  slave-trade  was  "the  sum  of  all 
villainies."  One  cargo  of  the  wretched  creat- 
ures I  saw  long  years  ago.  It  was  sickening  as  it 
was  devilish.  Well  did  David  Livingstone  say  of 
the  slave-trade  that  still  exists  in  some  parts  of 
Africa :  "  It  is  the  open  sore  of  the  world."  But  I 
have  not  now  to  discuss  the  sins  of  the  bad  men 
who  brought  to  this  country  several  thousands  of 
savage  Africans,  the  progenitors  of  the  several  mill- 
ions of  Americanized  Africans  who  have  been  so 
long  the  bone  of  contention  in  this  Republic.  Nor 
have  I,  at  this  time,  to  discuss  the  sins  of  the  bad 
masters  who  abused  their  slaves,  nor  the  virtues  of 
the  good  men  and  women  who  did  the  best  they 
could  with  an  awkward  and  burdensome  insti- 
tution, handed  down  to  them  from  their  fathers, 
and  fastened  upon  them  by  historical,  industrial, 
political,  and  social  conditions  that  they  could  not 
control. 

In  this  discussion  I  am  concerned  about  those 
facts  connected  with  their  history  and  present  con- 
dition which  may  aid  me  in  the  consideration  of 


Providence  in  Their  Location.  25 

the    problem    that   grows    out    of  their   presence 
here. 

They  are  in  the  United  States,  six  and  a  half 
millions  strong.  Their  dwelling-places  are  chiefly  be- 
tween parallels  of  latitude  30°  and  40°,  and  of  longi- 
tude (  west  of  Washington  )  o°  and  25°,  embracing, 
as  some  patriotic  and  perhaps  enthusiastic  people 
think,  the  very  best  part  of  the  globe,  as  Goshen 
was  the  best  part  of  Egypt. 

At  the  first  there  were  slaves  in  the  Northern 
States,  even  in  New  England.  Slavery  was  abol- 
ished in  Massachusetts  by  the  State  Constitution 
of  1780.  It  was  not  finally  extinct  in  Connecticut 
until  after  the  year  1840.  "The  United  States 
Census,"  says  Curtis,  in  his  "  History  of  the  Consti- 
tution," vol.  ii,  p.  289,  foot-note,  "for  1790 returned 
2,759  slaves  for  Connecticut;  the  census  for  1840 
returned  17  ;  in  the  census  for  1850  none  were  re-  • 
turned.  A  like  gradual  emancipation  took  place  in  ,  (  ^ 
New  Hampshire,  Rhode  Island,  Vermont,  New 
York  and  Pennsylvania."  The  emancipation  of 
the  slaves  in  these  States  did  not  produce  any  finan- 
cial, social,  or  political  convulsions.  And  chiefly 
for  two  reasons  :  I.  There  were  few  to  set  free,  too 
few  to  make  it  profitable  to  keep  them  in  servitude 
or  perilous  to  emancipate  and  enfranchise  them. 
2.  Their  emancipation  was  so  gradual  that  both  mas- 
ters and  slaves  were  prepared  for  it.  Is  it  surpris- 
ing that  the  sudden  emancipation  of  between  four 


26  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

and  five  millions  of  slaves,  at  the  close  of  an  ex- 
hausting war,  convulsed  and  prostrated  the  South- 
ern States  in  1865? 

Slavery  was  unprofitable  in  the  Northern  States, 
and,  in  the  course  of  time,  the  opinions  and  senti- 
ments of  the  best  people  were  arrayed  against  the 
institution.  These  opinions  grew  into  amazing 
strength  soon  after  the  final  abolition  of  slavery  in 
the  last  of  the  Northern  States.  Some  of  their 
slaves  lived  after  their  emancipation  in  the  States 
where  they  had  been  set  free;  others  were  sent 
South  before  their  emancipation,  and  sold  to  those 
who  still  believed  in  the  institution.  In  this  way, 
in  some  cases  at  least,  the  ignorance  and  errors  of 
one  party  helped  another  party  to  ease  of  con- 
science without  loss  of  cash.  I  have  long  believed 
that  it  was  one  of  the  most  fortunate  things 
in  the  world  that  slavery  did  not  prosper  in  the 
Northern  States.  If  it  had  been  profitable  in  the 
North,  these  good  people,  according  to  the  infirm- 
ity of  our  nature,  might  possibly  have  remained 
to  this  day  unconvinced  of  the  evils  of  slavery, 
being  blinded  by  their  worldly  interests.  Had 
slavery  been  profitable  in  the  North,  the  institution, 
with  all  its  evils,  might  have  been  fixed  upon  this 
country,  so  far  as  human  purposes  might  have 
had  to  do  with  the  matter,  forever. 

Most  sincerely  do  I  believe  that  this  would  have 
been  not  only  a  grievous  misfortune,  but  a  wither- 


Providence  in  Their  Location.  27 

ing  curse.  If  slavery  had  damaged  the  whole  of  the 
Union  as  it  undoubtedly  damaged  the  South,  what 
a  loss  to  the  world  !  Well  may  we  admire  the  re- 
sources of  the  divine  Providence  that  works  vast 
moral  revolutions  out  of  the  failure  of  men's  devices. 
After  slavery  failed  in  the  North  it  was  doomed  in 
the  South. 

It  has  been  a  dark  and  troubled  question  to 
thousands  of  as  honest  and  godly  people  as  ever 
sought  the  truth,  fought  for  what  they  believed  to 
be  the  right,  or  worshiped  God ;  yet  who  can  tell 
but  that  the  failure  of  the  Southern  Confederacy 
may  yet,  in  the  wise  and  gracious  Providence  that 
overrules  the  nations,  bring  as  great  blessings  to 
the  South  as  the  failure  of  slavery  brought  blessings 
to  the  North  ?  If  it  shall  turn  out  so,  our  chil- 
dren's children  will  celebrate  the  surrender  at  Appo- 
mattox  as  a  day  of  blessing,  although  they  will  still 
honor  the  spirit  of  the  men  who  won  the  praise  of 
the  world  for  their  heroic  struggles  for  what  was 
dear  to  their  love  and  their  faith. 

If  it  shall  be  asked,  How  came  these  poor  Africans 
to  this  country?  I  answer,  without  hesitation,  God 
brougJit  tJiem  here,  "  to  save  much  people  alive'1  I  do 
not  say  that  the  merciful  and  just  God  sanctioned 
the  slave-trade.  For  that  was  one  of  the  darkest 
crimes  recorded  on  the  page  of  history.  But  there 
is  no  doctrine  more  clearly  taught  in  the  Holy  Script- 
ures than  that  God  "  makes  the  wrath  of  man  to 


28  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 


praise  him :  "  that  he  overrules  the  selfishness  and 
sins  of  men  to  bring  about  good  and  gracious 
results.  On  this  rock  has  triumphant  faith  ten 
thousand  times  planted  her  feet  in  the  day  of  dark- 
ness and  doubt. 

Let  us  illustrate  the  doctrine  : 

Joseph  was  carried  into  Egypt  as  a  slave,  and  sold 
by  his  blood-brothers  to  wandering  merchants  of  the 
Arabs.  What  a  light  is  cast  upon  dark  providences 
by  the  words  of  good  and  wise  Joseph  to  his  peni- 
tent brethren  when  they  had  returned  to  Egypt 
from  the  burial  of  their  father  Jacob  :  "  As  for  you, 
ye  thought  evil  against  me  ;  but  God  meant  it  unto 
good,  to  bring  to  pass,  as  it  is  this  day,  to  save  much 
people  alive."  And  what  blessings,  reaching  wide, 
did  this  Joseph,  stolen  from  his  father,  sold  into 
slavery  by  his  brothers,  bring  not  only  to  his  father's 
house,  but  to  Egypt,  the  land  of  his  servitude ! 

All  providences,  in  the  lives  of  individuals  and  in 
the  history  of  nations,  must  be  interpreted  in  the 
light  of  their  relation  to  the  Cross  of  Christ,  which 
shines  backward  and  forward  upon  all  the  dark 
questions  of  the  ages.  Let  us  try  to  look  at  the 
question,  first,  of  African  slavery,  and,  secondly,  of 
African  freedom  in  the  United  States,  in  this  clear 
and  steady  light. 

The  secular  historian  will  say  truly  that  the 
negroes  did  a  wonderful  work  in  helping  to  subdue 
this  western  wilderness.  But  the  historian  of  the 


Providence  in   Their  Location.  29 

Church  of  Christ  and    the    recorder  of  the  great 
deeds  in  true  human  progress,  will  say  that  the  most 
wonderful  of  all  facts   connected  with  the  strange 
history  of  the  children  of  Africa  in  America  is  this : 
that  there  are  now,  1881,  nearly  one  million  of  them 
in  the  communion  of  the  various  Christian  Churches 
in  the  United  States,  and  that  the  six  millions  of 
them  have  been  brought  largely  under  the  influence 
of  the  Christian  religion.     Immortal  is  the  honor 
that  belongs  to  the  memory  of  the  Christian  men 
and  women  of  the  South  who,  long  before  1865,  so 
preached  the  Gospel  to  the  slaves  upon  the  planta- 
tions,  that   nearly   half  a   million    of   them   were 
brought  into  the  different  Churches  that  were  then 
at  work  in  the  Southern  States.     And  immortal  is 
the  honor  due  to    those  who,  taking  up  the  good 
work  where  the  men  and  women  of  the  South  were, 
by  the  circumstances  of  an  evil  time,  compelled  to 
lay  it  down  for  awhile,  (it  is  only  for  awhile,)  have 
carried  it  on  so  well  that  in  fifteen  years  they  have 
added  nearly  half  a  million  more  to  the  number  of 
believing  negroes. 

Weak  and  foolish  are  they  who  sneer  at  the  relig- 
ion of  negroes.  It  is  true  that  they  may  have  vague 
ideas  of  "  dogma  ;  "  they  may  not  use  a  dignified 
"  liturgy "  in  their  worship ;  they  may  have  more 
emotion  than  "  esthetics"  in  their  religion  ;  but  this 
fact  remains — they  are  not  heathens.  They  are  as 
far  above  and  beyond  their  heathen  forefathers  as 


30  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

the  most  cultured  of  English-speaking  people  are 
superior  to  the  Britons,  long  after  Caesar's  in- 
vasion. 

Seeing  that  the  greatest  fact  of  the  history  of  » 
African  slavery  in  the  United  States  is  the  Chris-  ] 
tianizing  of  hundreds  of  thousands  of  them,  I  con- 
clude that  Christianizing  them  was  the  grand 
providential  design  in  their  coming  to  this  country. 
It  is,  by  the  way,  a  significant  fact,  that  the  wild 
Africans  appeared  on  these  shores  long  before  there 
was  a  thought  of  a  Foreign  Missionary  Society  in 
the  American  Churches.  Who,  knows  but  that  the 
heathen  who  were  brought  to  us  largely  moved  the 
Churches  to  send  the  Gospel  to  the  heathen  in 
their  own  lands  ?  He  who  cannot,  through  all  the 
mists  and  clouds  of  this  strange  and  troubled  his- 
tory, see  the  hand  of  God  in  their  coming  to  this 
country,  can  hardly  understand  the  "  going  down  " 
of  Israel  "  into  Egypt." 

Let  us  refer  to  that  history  a  moment.  God 
would  "  raise  up  a  peculiar  people."  The  problem 
of  a  Hebrew  race,  of  comparatively  pure  blood, 
could  not  have  been  worked  out  in  Canaan,  with  its 
roving  shepherd  life.  As  far  back  as  the  "  call "  of 
Abraham  out  of  "  Ur  of  the  Chaldees  "  we  see  the 
hand  of  Providence  in  manifold  adjustments  that 
issued  in  separating  this  one  family  from  their  fire- 
worshiping  kindred  the  other  side  of  the  Euphrates. 
The  same  design  is  manifested  in  God's  dealing 


Prwidence  in   Their  Location.  31 

with  the  larger  family  of  Jacob.  To  preserve  them 
a  "  peculiar  people "  they  were,  under  pressure  of 
famine,  moved  into  Egypt,  where,  in  many  provi- 
dential ways,  they  were  cared  for — "  nourished  "  is 
Joseph's  word — and  protected  till  the  family  grew 
into  a  tribe,  the  tribe  into  a  race,  a  nation  within 
a  nation,  but  yet  not  strong  enough,  in  numbers  or 
character,  to  be  transplanted  to  the  promised  land. 
The  problem  needed  Egypt,  fertile  and  favorable  to 
the  rapid  increase  of  the  race,  and,  as  the  strongest 
of  the  nations,  able  to  protect  the  children  of  Israel 
from  their  enemies.  It  needed,  also,  a  people  who, 
by  tradition,  hated  "  shepherds,"  and  who,  when 
they  came  to  fear  their  increasing  strength,  made 
them  slaves.  The  Hebrew  slavery  and  the  Egyp- 
tian caste-prejudice  against  foreigners  and  shep- 
herds conspired  to  keep  the  races  unmixed.  If 
there  had  been  free  intermarriage  the  Hebrew  race 
would  have  been  absorbed  within  the  first  hundred 
years  of  their  stay  in  Egypt,  and  the  whole  prob- 
lem lost  irretrievably. 

A  good  deal  has  been  said  at  random,  and  in 
a  declamatory  way,  about  the  iniquity  of  caste. 
May  be  we  have  not  yet  reached  the  bottom  of  this 
subject;  may  be,  if  God  had  designed  any  such  com- 
mingling of  bloods  as  would  issue  in  one  conglom- 
erate race,  there  never  would  have  been  any  such 
sentiment  or  instinct  in  the  human  breast. 

Let  us  suppose  now  that  one  hundred  thousand 


32  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

Africans  —  heathen  all  —  had  been  set  down  in 
America  about  the  time  the  children  of  the  Pilgrim 
Fathers  were  getting  a  foothold  in  Massachusetts 
and  the  Cavaliers  were  establishing  their  settle- 
ments in  Virginia  and  the  Carolinas ;  and  suppose 
there  had  not  been,  as  there  was  from  the  begin- 
ning, spontaneous  and  resistless,  one  instinct  of 
caste  attraction  and  repulsion,  and  that  there  had 
been  no  obstacle  to  free  intermarriage.  Very  soon 
there  would  have  been  no  African  race  in  this 
country.  The  issue  would  have  been  largely  differ- 
ent; there  would  have  been  no  heathen  African  race 
to  train  to  useful  arts,  sturdy  strength,  and  manly 
character,  to  lift  up  and  to  Christianize ;  but  a 
Christian  white  race  might  have  been  largely  hea- 
thenized. How  would  such  a  mingling  of  bloods 
as  is  here  supposed  have  effected  the  development 
of  civilization  in  the  United  States  ?  It  is  a  ques- 
tion that  one  who  loves  free  institutions  and  has 
hope  that  his  country  holds  a  blessing  for  the 
world,  does  not  like  to  consider. 

Furthermore,  had  such  an  issue  followed  the  in- 
troduction of  the  heathen  negroes  into  this  country, 
there  would  have  been  for  continental  Africa,  with 
her  uncounted  millions,  no  morning  star  of  hope 
shining  over  the  lowly  cabins  and  humble  sanctu- 
aries of  their  Christianized  brethren  in  America. 
For  we  must  never  forget  the  ultimate  outcome  of 
this  vast  movement ;  we  must  never  forget  that  the 


Providence  in   Their  Location.  33 

Christianizing  of  these  multitudes  of  Africans  here 
looks,  and  must  look,  to  the  salvation  of  the  vaster 
multitudes  in  Africa  itself.  And  in  order  to  work 
out  these  results,  both  here  and  yonder,  it  was 
necessary  to  preserve  a  comparatively  pure  African 
race  in  this  country.  In  those  cases  where  human 
sin  has  mixed  these  diverse  bloods  the  divine 
plan,  I  must  believe,  has  been  so  much  marred. 
But,  as  to  the  great  majority  of  them,  the  Afri- 
cans in  this  country  are,  as  we  have  seen,  pure 
bloods.  The  caste  feeling  and  the  environments  of 
slavery  favored  this  design  of  Providence  in  a  far 
greater  degree  than  those  persons  suppose  who  do 
not  thoroughly  know  the  negro  in  the  rural  districts 
of  the  South,  as  well  as  in  the  towns  and  cities. 

But  why  should  the  South  be  the  chosen  field  for 
working  out  this  stupendous  race-problem  that  in- 
volves, as  surely  as  the  world  moves  or  stands,  the 
destiny  of  two  continents?  All  the  reasons  I  claim 
not  to  have  discovered  ;  some,  doubtless,  are  as  yet 
undeveloped  ;  but  some  of  them  seem  very  plain 
tome. 

i.  These  African  children,  in  the  school  of  Prov- 
idence, needed  a  warm  climate.  The  South  gave 
them  a  better  climate  than  Africa  could  give.  And  ...i 


one  result  among  many  is,  the  descendants  of  the? 
wild  Africans  that  first  landed  on  these  shores  are, 
in  every  respect,  a  finer  race  than  were  their  ances-  (jy  ytf 
tors  when  they  came,  than  are  their  kindred  who 


I  —    r  f 


34  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

still  inhabit  the  original  dwelling-places  of  their  peo- 
ple. In  horticultural  gardens  tender  exotic  plants 
are  sometimes  hardened  by  frequent  transplantings. 
So  these  Africans,  who  were  brought  to  America, 
found  a  climate  that  was  warm  enough  to  suit  their 
constitution,  and  that  was  yet  free  from  the  enervat- 
ing heats  of  the  tropics.  The  wisdom  of  Providence 
is  justified  in  an  improved  and  bettered  race. 
•jA  2.  They  needed,  for  a  time,  the  guidance  and 
protection  of  a  stronger  people.  And  they  need- 
ed, in  order  that  the  best  results  might  follow, 
in  this  stronger  race,  a  people  of  homogeneous 
blood.  They  found  such  a  race  in  the  Southern 
whites  as  they  could  have  found  it  nowhere  else  in 
the  United  States.  Thus,  in  Georgia,  according  to 

* 

the  Census  of  1880,  there  is  a  total  population  of 
1,538,983.  Of  the  whole  number  only  10,310  are 
foreigners.  In  further  illustration  it  may  be  men- 
tioned that  in  Louisiana,  where  there  was  not  a 
homogeneous  white  race,  the  Christianizing  process 
did  not  succeed  nearly  so  well  as  in  South  Carolina, 
where  nearly  all  the  white  people  were  English,  or 
in  Georgia,  where,  as  we  have  seen,  the  foreign  ele- 
ment in  the  population  is,  practically,  an  inappre- 
ciable quantity.  How  our  difficult  problem  would 
be  complicated  were  there  in  the  States  where  the 
freed  negroes  are  a  dense  foreign  population !  Only 
suppose  an  Irish  ward  in  New  York  or  Philadelphia, 
or  a  German  ward  in  Chicago  or  Cincinnati,  out- 


Providence  in  Their  Location.  35     • 

worked,  under-bid,  and  out-voted  by  a  "solid"  black 
column  !  There  would  be  blood  and  chaos. 

3.  They  needed  in  the  religion  of  the  ruling  race  i 
a  Protestant  faith,  pure  and  simple.     They  found 
such  a  Protestantism  in  the  South  as  they  could 
have  found  it  nowhere  else  in  the  world.     It  may 
be  one  of  the    blessings  of   Southern   provincial- 
ism  that  the  many  speculative  vagaries  that  have 
plagued  the  Church  in  Germany,  in  England,  and 
in    New    England,    have   never    prospered    in   the 
Southern  States  of  the  Union.     No  form  of  infi- 
delity has  ever  had  welcome,  or  won  a  foothold, 
among  the  people  of  the   South.      And,  with  the 
exception  of  the  French-settled  State  of  Louisiana, 
Romanism  has  never  had  dominion  in  these  States. 

I  do  not  wish  to  say  what  may  offend  pious  Roman 
Catholics,  but  I  refer  to  matters  of  history  when 
I  say  that,  as  compared  with  the  influence  of  Prot- 
estantism upon  Africans  held  in  slavery,  Romanism 
has  notably  failed.  Witness  Louisiana  in  the 
United  States ;  the  West  India  Islands,  except  in 
those  members  of  this  group  where  the  English 
flag  gave  liberty  and  opportunity  to  Protestant 
missionaries.  Witness,  also,  Mexico,  the  Central 
American  States,  and  the  Empire  of  Brazil. 

4.  They  needed  protection  against  the  worst  in- 
stincts of  the  stronger  race  itself;  this  they  received 
through  the  self-interest — for  slavery  was  profitable 
in  the  South — if  not  through  the  humanity,  of  their 


36  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

masters.     That  there  were  many  exceptions  to  this      • 
rule  I  allow  and  deplore.     But  perhaps  one  would 
not  go  too  far  were  he  to  say,  If  it  was  needful  for' 
these  men  in  stature  and  children  in  intelligence  to 
have  masters,  for  a  time,  the  Southern  whites  made 
as  good  masters  as  they  could  have  found  in  any 
country. 

Alas !  many  of  these  masters  did  not  recognize 
the  divine  hand  in  the  wonderful  providences  of 
this  strange  history ;  many  of  them  did  not  realize 
their  sacred  function  of  "  school-masters"  to  bring 
these  children  of  the  sun  to  Christ.  But  many  of 
them  did,  and  they  were  faithful  to  God  and  to  their 
servants.  Wherein  any  of  them  sinned  against  God 
in  sinning  against  their  dark-skinned  brother,  alas! 
they  were  not  alone.  Southern  masters  were  not 
alone  in  dealing  hardly  with  dependents.  "  Let 
him  that  is  without  sin" — let  him  only — "  cast  the 
first  stone."  May  I  not  add  this  word  also  ? — 
wherein  any  have  sinned  all  have  suffered.  For 
every  wrong  done  to  defenseless  slaves  the  whole 
race  of  masters  paid  a  penalty,  of  which  the  loss  of 
money  was  unspeakably  the  lesser  part.  •  For  every 
mercy  shown  the  slave,  for  every  kind  word,  for  ev- 
ery effort  to  lift  him  up,  for  every  brotherly  office, 
the  good  and  just  God  gives  the  master  full  recog- 
nition and  approbation,  j  Men  have  not  always 
treated  the  master  so  justly;  they  could  not,  for 
they  saw  only  in  part ;  and  the  better  part,  from 


r 


, 

Providence  in  Their  Location.  37 


their  distant  point  of  view  and  their  uncertain 
lights,  they  could  not  see.  I  know  that  in  very 
many  Southern  homes  (scores  I  could  name  in 
these  pages  —  my  honored  and  translated  father's 
among  them)  in  the  old  days,  the  servants  made 
part  of  the  worshiping  household,  and  that  be- 
hind them,  as  they  sung  or  knelt  at  the  family 
altar,  the  devout  master  saw  "  Ethiopia  stretching 
out  her  hands." 

The  outcome  of  it  all  is,  the  one  million  com- 
municants and  the  six  millions  more  or  less  "  leav- 
ened" by  Christian  principle  and  sentiment.  If 
there  is  such  a  fact  in  Christian  history  I  know  not 
where  it  is  recorded. 

The  religion  of  the  Southern  negroes  —  slave  or 
free  —  was,  and  is,  a  divine  reality.  During  the 
late  war  their  religion  was  pure  and  strong  enough 
to  secure  to  helpless  women  and  children,  on  the 
Southern  plantations,  peace  and  safety,  while  the 
men  were  in  the  Southern  armies  fighting  under  a 
flag  which  did  not  promise  freedom  to  the  slaves. 
And  we  may  be  quite  sure  that  the  negroes  under- 
stood what  the  war  meant  in  its  relation  to  them. 
In  what  history  can  the  conduct  of  these  Southern 
slaves,  from  1861  to  1865,  be  matched?  There  are 
three  explanations:  i.  The  negro  is  not  naturally 
daring  or  revengeful.  2.  The  majority  of  them 
loved  their  owners.  3.  Multitudes  of  them  were 
truly  religious. 


38  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

In  trying  to  understand  the  coming  of  these 
African  slaves  to  America  and  their  settlement  and 
history  in  the  South,  we  must  remember  these  one 
million  of  communicants ;  this  whole  race  more  or 
less  influenced  by  the  gospel  leaven ;  we  must  also 
consider  what  these  American-African  Christians 
may  some  day  do  for  Africa. 

IV 

-K\    rv  - 


The  Negro  Free.  39 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE     NEGRO     FREE. 

ONE  may  be  entirely  consistent  when  he  says, 
I  recognize  the  hand  of  Providence  in  the 
coming  to  this  country  of  several  thousands  of  sav- 
age and  heathen  Africans  ;  I  recognize  the  hand  of 
Providence  in  the  circumstances  of  their  enslave- 
ment, in  such  a  country  and  among  such  a  people, 
and  I  rejoice  now,  and  thank  God,  from  day  to  day, 
that  this  same  Providence  has  set  them  free  for- 
ever. If  any  object,  he  must  say,  Either  Provi- 
dence was  not  in  their  coming,  their  enslavement, 
or  their  emancipation.  He  who  says  either  of  these 
things  has  given  up  the  Bible  and  the  rational  doc- 
trine of  Providence.  For  one,  I  do  not  believe 
that  the  Providence  that  includes  "  lilies "  and 
"  sparrows  "  overlooks  millions  of  human  beings. 

As  to  slavery  itself,  I  do  not  discuss  it.  The  sins 
connected  with  it  every  good  man  deplores  ;  for  the 
blessings  God  brought  the  negroes  while  in  slavery 
— whether  by  virtue  of  it,  or  in  spite  of  it — every 
good  man,  who  has  knowledge  of  the  facts,  gives 
thanks  to  the  Giver  of  all  good.  I  am  not  called 
on  to  discuss  the  right  or  wrong  of  slavery.  I  will 


40  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

not  discuss  dead  issues  while  there  are  more  living 
ones  than  we  can  manage.  In  this  discussion  my 
chief  concern  is  not  with  slavery,  but  with  the  facts 
that  grow  out  of  its  abolition.  I  have  nothing  to 
do  with  slavery,  except  only  as  its  facts  and  issues 
affect  us  of  to-day.  I  say  "  us."  I  mean  the  ne- 
groes and  the  white  people  of  this  whole  Nation.  I 
am  not,  in  the  least  degree,  responsible  for  the  intro- 
duction of  African  slaves  into  this  country;  I  am 
not  responsible  for  being  born  in  a  slave-holding 
community;  I  am  not  responsible  for  being  born 
the  son  of  a  slave-holder — a  man  who  feared  God 
and  "  served  his  generation  according  to  the  will  of 
God,"  who  never  treated  a  slave  unjustly  or  un- 
kindly, and  who  was  followed  to  his  grave  (Decem- 
ber 26,  1862)  with  their  loud  lamentations.  Let  it 
be  remembered  that  of  the  white  people  of  the 
South  who  are  now  suffering  so  many  of  the  ills  of 
slavery,  who  are  now  paying,  in  a  hundred  ways,  so 
fearful  a  price  for  the  imposition  of  slavery  upon 
the  very  civil  and  social  institutions  under  which 
they  were  born — let  it  be  remembered  that  the  ma- 
jority of  these  people  never  did  own  slaves.  Let  it 
be  remembered,  also,  that  of  those  who  must  now 
bear  the  responsibilities  of  citizenship,  who  must 
now,  through  a  thousand  struggles,  and  against  a 
thousand  adverse  minds,  win  for  their  section  of 
the  Union  what,  but  for  slavery,  they  would  have 
i ',  hen  ted — let  it  be  remembered  that  the  majority 


The  Negro  Free.  41 

of  these  men  have  "come  of  age"  since  1861.  And 
let  those  men  who,  so  far  as  their  civil  life  is  con- 
cerned, were  "  born  free  "  from  the  entanglements 
of  slavery,  remember,  also,  that  they  are  not  of  the 
past,  but  of  the  present  and  the  future ;  let  them 
remember  that  God  has  set  them  free  as  well  as  the 
negroes,  and  that  now  the  "  truth  "  should  "  make 
them  free  "  altogether  and  forever. 

Again  I  say,  I  will  not  discuss  the  dead  and 
buried  slavery.  If  slavery  must  be  discussed,  there 
are  plenty  of  people  who  are  masters  of  the  argu- 
ment ;  plenty  of  people  who  have  delight  in  it. 
One  may,  it  is  to  be  hoped,  in  such  a  country  and 
in  such  an  age  as  this  rejoice  that  the  negroes  are 
44  free,"  without  being  required,  in  order  to  prove 
his  sincerity,  to  contemn  the  memory  of  his  fathers, 
who  conscientiously  believed  that  they  ought  not 
to  be  set  free.  I  will  neither  malign  nor  contemn 
the  memory  of  my  fathers,  for  I  cannot  forget  that 
the  Federal  Constitution,  which  not  only  recog- 
nized slavery,  but  inwrought  it  into-  the  very  bone 
and  fiber  and  blood  of  our  institutions,  was  framed 
nearly  one  hundred  years  ago.  But  I  do  rejoice  in 
the  emancipation  of  the  negroes.  To  ask  a  South- 
ern man  to  denounce  the  past  history  of  his  people, 
because  he  recognizes  the  facts  of  the  present  and 
believes  in  the  possibilities  of  the  coming  time, 
would  be  as  reasonable  as  to  require  a  son  of  the 
Pilgrim  Fathers  to  vindicate  his  present  intolerance 


42  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

of  persecution  by  declaring  Cotton  Mather  to  have 
been  a  hypocrite  and  a  villain. 

There  is  no  more  slavery  in  our  country.  The 
former  advocates  of  slavery — such  of  them  as  are 
still  alive,  for  the  majority  of  them  are  dead — fully 
accept  emancipation.  Let  the  former  advocates  of 
emancipation  accept  it  also,  and  have  done  with 
digging  up  slavery  as  an  everlasting  theme  of 
anniversary  orations.  It  would  be  just  as  sensi- 
ble to  denounce  George  III.  on  every  anniver- 
sary of  American  Independence.  Now  his  Majesty 
George  III.  is  dead  and  buried ;  let  him  rest. 
We  would  suspect  one  of  poverty  of  intellectual 
resources  if  he  found  himself  unable  to  get  through 
a  "  Fourth-of-July "  speech  without  making  faces 
and  hurling  epithets  at  the  poor  old  king.  It  is 
said  that  the  monarchists,  when  Charles  II.  was 
restored  to  his  father's  throne,  dug  up  the  bones  of 
Cromwell  and  hung  them  on  Tyburn  Hill.  It  was 
not  statesmanship  but  passion  that  did  this.  True 
wisdom,  to  say  nothing  of  magnanimity,  would  have 
left  his  bones  in  their  grave.  Even  slavery  is  enti- 
tled to  its  grave.  In  that  grave,  for  it  is  very  deep, 
both  parties  should  bury  their  quarrel,  without 
resurrection. 

Slavery  is  done  with.  The  negroes  have  been 
set  free  once  and  for  all,  as  every  body  knows.  It 
is  done,  and  it  will  never  be  undone.  There  are 
many  reasons  for  this  opinion.  Three  I  mention : 


The  Negro  Free.  43 

First,  If  there  were  any  to  desire  their  re-enslave- 
ment, they  know  full  well  that  the  might  and  con- 
science of  the  Christian  world  are  against  it.  There 
is  no  fool  mad  enough  to  breast  a  tidal  wave  that 
moves  with  the  force  of  a  whole  ocean.  Secondly, 
Their  re-enslavement  is  not  desired.  The  few  "  old 
masters  "  who  still  live — and  let  it  be  remembered 
by  just  men  that  most  of  them  are  dead — do  not 
desire  it.  (I  have  known  but  one  man  among  the 
"old  masters"  who  said  he  wished  his  slaves  again. 
He  said  this  a  few  months  after  Appomattox.  In 
less  than  twelve  months  he  was  elected  to  office  by 
negro  votes  !)  Thirdly,  Every  body  knows,  fully 
and  definitely,  that  the  re-enslavement  of  these 
freed  negroes  cannot,  by  any  possibility,  be  brought 
about.  One  of  the  wants  of  our  generation  is  si- 
lence on  this  subject.  It  is  not  only  true  that  the 
Southern  people  do  not  desire  the  re-enslavement 
of  the  negroes,  but  it  is  true,  also,  as  has  been  men- 
tioned, that  the  majority  of  Southern  people  never 
owned  slaves,  and  it  is  further  true,  that  thousands 
upon  thousands  of  them  never  believed  in  the  insti- 
tution, and  they  ask  on  this  subject  silence.  Are 
they  not  entitled  to  ask  this  much  ? 

I  do  not  claim  to  have  been  among  those  who 
never  believed  in  slavery.  Time  was  when  I  did 
believe  in  it  thoroughly,  and  when  I  defended  it  to 
the  best  of  my  ability.  I  make  no  apology  for  .hav- 
ing believed  in  it.  I  was  taught  to  believe  in  it;  I 


44  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

grew  up  in  the  midst  of  it ;  I  saw  its  very  best 
aspects  in  my  father's  house.  His  slaves  loved  me, 
and  I  loved  them  ;  and  we  love  each  other  to-day. 
Nor  do  I  make  any  apology  for  saying,  I  do  not 
now  believe  in  slavery.  I  have  changed  my  opin- 
ions ;  rather,  new  and  purer  light  has  changed  them. 
"  Truly  the  light  is  sweet,  and  a  pleasant  thing  it  is 
for  the  eyes  to  behold  the  sun." 

But  I  will  not  denounce  the  "old  masters;"  I 
will  not  discuss  slavery.  It  is  infinitely  more  im- 
portant to  this  generation,  infinitely  more  import- 
ant for  the  generations  that  come  after  us,  that  we 
discuss  the  negro's  freedom.  On  this  subject  we 
want  light,  clear  and  steady.  We  cannot  study 
this  lesson  by  the  light  of  camp  fires ;  we  need  the 
pure  white  light  of  the  sun.  And  it  is  a  more  diffi- 
cult subject  than  slavery;  it  is  in  a  hundred  ways 
involved  and  complicated.  It  is  a  subject  that  can- 
not be  mastered  in  the  heats  of  sectional  or  party 
passion.  It  requires  the  poise  of  good  sense  and 
the  guidance  of  good  conscience  following,  through 
a  tangled  wilderness,  the  pure  light  of  a  fixed  star. 
It  is  time  now  that  men  should  study  this  question, 
in  all  its  relations,  calmly  and  justly.  Nearly  half 
the  life  of  a  generation  has  been  lived  since  the 
echoes  of  the  last  battle  of  the  horrible  civil  war 
died  away.  We  are  moving  out  of  the  century 
which  quarreled  and  fought  and  offered  up  the 
lives  of  thousands  of  its  best  and  bravest  in  the 


The  Negro  Free.  45 

final  settlement  of  the  dispute.  The  gray  light  of 
the  dawning  of  the  twentieth  century  appears  in 
the  eastern  sky ;  there  is  the  song  of  morning  birds 
in  the  air ;  presently  the  rosy  day  will  burst  upon 
us.  In  God's  name  let  us  every  one — men  of  the 
North  and  men  of  the  South — get  ready  for  the 
coming  day. 

To  the  subject  of  African  freedom,  then,  in  all 
its  relations  to  two  races,  to  two  continents,  and  to 
the  world,  I  am  willing  to  give  my  best  attention, 
seeking  the  fullest  truth  in  the  purest  light  God 
may  give  me.  And  I  know,  by  the  authority  of 
Christ,  my  Lord,  that  "  the  truth  makes  free."  I 
know,  also,  that  nothing  else  makes  free  in  this 
world.  Arguments,  laws,  proclamations,  amend- 
ments to  constitutions,  battles ;  these  alone  make 
no  man  free.  The  truth,  and  nothing  else,  makes 
free  the  souls  as  well  as  the  bodies  of  men. 

There  are  three  parties  in  this  great  historic  con- 
flict that  need  freedom  by  the  truth  :  the  men  of 
the  South,  the  men  of  the  North,  and  the  negroes 
themselves.  Let  no  man  flatter  himself  that  he 
knows  all  the  truth  of  this  deep  and  difficult  prob- 
lem. I  know  that  I  do  not.  "  I  count  not  myself 
to  have  apprehended  :  but  this  one  thing  I  do,  for- 
getting those  things  which  are  behind,  and  reach- 
ing forth  unto  those  things  which  are  before,  I  press 
toward  the  mark  for  the  prize  of  my  high  calling  of 
God  in  Christ  Jesus." 


46  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

PROVIDENCE  IN  EMANCIPATION. 

T  N  this  discussion  I  have  to  do  with  African 
•••  slavery  only  in  so  far  as  slavery  was  used  by 
the  mysterious  but  all-wise  and  gracious  providence 
of  God  to  prepare  the  negroes  for  their  freedom. 
Nay,  more  than  this,  for  what  is  of  vaster  import, 
to  prepare  them  for  their  duties  and  destiny  in  the 
right  use  of  their  freedom.  Is  this  a  fancy?  Is 
this  a  mere  vagary  of  Southern  prejudice?  When 
I  say  that  God  used  their  slavery  to  prepare  them 
for  their  freedom,  am  I  only  seeking  a  sort  of  last 
refuge  for  an  opinion  on  the  subject  of  slavery  that 
I  have  affirmed  that  I  have  utterly  given  up  and 
changed  ?  Nay,  verily,  I  recognize  the  obvious 
facts  of  the  history  of  the  negro  race  in  America. 
Nor  are  these  facts  exceptional.  God  never  gave 
freedom  to  any  barbarous  nation  without  first  sub- 
jecting them,  in  some  way,  to  a  period  and  a  dis- 
cipline of  preparation.  No  savage  people  ever 
sprang  at  a  bound  into  the  enjoyment  of  freedom, 
and  held  it  long,  or  used  it  wisely.  Most  republics 
have  failed  because  the  people  were  not  ready  for 
them.  Heaven  judged  that  a  period  of  four  hun- 


Providence  in  Emancipation.  47 

dred  years  was  not  too  long  to  prepare  the  Hebrew 
race  for  independent  national  life.  The  records  of 
Exodus  show  that  even  they  had  not  learned  too 
well  the  providential  lessons  of  their  stay  in  "  the 
house  of  bondage." 

Let    me    ask,    and    let    sober    people    answer,  £*fl& 
whether  the  wild  Africans  were  fitted  for  freedom 
when  they  were  first  landed  from  the  slave-ships 
that  brought  them  from  their  savage  homes  to  the 

R  plantations  of  this  country.  Were  not  their 
American  masters,  unworthy  of  their  sacred  trust 
as  many  of  them  were,  better  fitted,  judged  by  any 
test,  to  prepare  these  people  for  freedom  than  were 
their  African  masters  and  conquerors  who  sold 
them  to  the  slavers  ?  For  what  is  generally  forgot- 
ten should  be  always  remembered  —  most  of  the 
egroes  sold  into  slavery  in  America  were  bought 
from  slavery  in  Africa.  And  surely  I  do  not  go  I 
too  far  when  I  say,  American  slavery  was  freedom 
compared  with  the  slavery  from  which  they  were 

taken. 

- 

Some  of  them,  I  know,  were  not  technically 
slaves  in  their  own  country ;  some  were  bought  as 
captives  taken  in  predatory  wars ;  some  of  them 
were  stolen  from  their  homes.  If  slavery  in  Africa 
were  considered  by  those  who  say  so  much  of  the 
evils  of  American  slavery,  they  would  at  least  find 
reasons  to  magnify  the  Providence  that  so  over- 
ruled the  cupidity  and  cruelty  of  wicked  men  as  to 


48  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

bring  the  divinest  blessings,  for  both  worlds,  to  the 
helpless  victims  of  their  sin. 

The  poor  Africans  were  not,  as  every  candid  man 
will  admit,  as  well  fitted  for  freedom  when  the 
slave-ships  first  landed  them  in  America  as  they 
were  when  God  gave  them  their  freedom  in  1865. 
Only  suppose  they  had  been  set  free  when  first 
they  came.  Does  any  rational  man  suppose  there 
would  have  been  so  good  an  outcome  ?  We  are 
not  lacking  in  a  historic  parallel.  The  red  men 
were  here  when  the  "  Mayflower  "  came,  and  when 
the  Cavaliers  first  founded  their  colonies.  And  they 
were  always  free.  They  have  never  been  subjected 
to  personal  slavery.  The  Indians  were  never  less 
civilized  than  were  the  Africans  at  their  coming  to 
our  country.  But  what  blessings  has  their  freedom 
brought  them  ?  Were  they  not  slain,  tribe  after 
tribe  ?  Have  they  increased  in  numbers  ?  Have 
they  been  Christianized  ?  Has  not  this  "  Indian 
question "  been,  from  the  beginning,  the  shame 
and  perplexity  and  despair  of  our  statesmanship? 
Have  we  mastered  this  question  after  two  hundred 
years  of  blundering  experiment  ?  Let  any  man 
imagine,  who  can  and  who  dares,  what  would  have 
been  the  fate  of  a  few  thousand  Africans,  ignorant, 
debased,  and  idolatrous,  turned  loose  to  freedom 
when  their  feet  first  touched  our  shores. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  in  the  minds  of 
nearly  all  of  the  negroes  of  this  country  that  very 


Providence  in  Emancipation.  49 

remarkable  and  historic  man,  Abraham  Lincoln,  is 
loved  and  revered  as  their  deliverer.  They  accept 
and  honor  him  as  the  "  Moses  "  of  their  salvation. 
Never  can  I  forget  the  countenance  of  a  negro  man 
I  saw  one  day  in  March,  1875,  contemplating  a 
statue  of  Mr.  Lincoln  in  the  Rotunda  of  the  Capi- 
tol in  Washington  city.  Evidently  he  was  not  a 
resident  in  the  city.  Like  myself,  he  was  a  visitor, 
seeing  what  he  could.  It  may  be  counted  a  weak- 
ness or  a  want  of  taste  in  me,  but  no  matter ;  of 
all  things  I  saw  in  Washington  city,  that  negro's 
countenance  most  impressed  me,  and  it  is  now  my 
most  vivid  remembrance.  He  stood  still  and  silent 
before  the  voiceless  marble,  gazing  at  it  as  if  he 
would  read  the  very  soul  of  the  man  it  represented. 
His  face  and  attitude  moved  me  deeply.  It  was 
plain  that  the  negro  wanted  to  talk  to  the  statue ; 
C  that  he  longed  to  bless  with  loving  thanks  the  man 
who  made  him  free.  I  was  not  mistaken  in  his 
feeling.'  I  know  the  negro  face.  There  was  some- 
thine  almost  worshipful  in  the  man's  manner  and 

o  *> 

expression  as  he  stood  in  silent  contemplation. 
He  looked  as  if  the  sight  of  that  marble  statue  was 
the  fruition  of  a  pilgrimage,  and  as  if  he  felt^  that 
he  stood  on  "holy  ground."  That  man  repre- 
sented the  feeling  of  his  race.  All  over  the  South 
the  name  of  Abraham  Lincoln  is,  to  the  negroes, 
the  name  of  a  saint  and  martyr  of  God.  They  are 
in  singular  ignorance  of  the  men  and  women  who 
4 


5o  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 


nobly    fought    their    battles.       Garrison,    Sumner, 
Seward,  and  Greeley  are  names  that,  to  the  mass 


of  them,  are  unknown.  But  the  name  of  Abraham 
Lincoln  is  engraved  on  all  their  hearts.  It  is  not 
surprising  that  they  should  know  him  only,  or  that 
they  should  almost  worship  his  memory. 

Many  of  the  negroes  look  beyond  Mr.  Lincoln 
for  the  gift  of  their  freedom  ;  they  look  upon  him 
as  the  instrument  of  the  divine  Providence.  But 

/the  majority  of  them  do  not  look  beyond  the  in- 
strument. It  seems  to  me  a  matter  of  vast  mo- 
ment to  both  races  that  the  hand  of  God  should  be 
recognized  in  this  whole  history — one  of  the  most 
remarkable  that  belongs  to  the  annals  of  any  nation. 
It  is  important  to  the  emancipated  negro  to  see 
God  in  his  freedom,  that  there  may  be  in  his  heart 
and  life  a  right  conscience  in  the  use  of  his  freedom. 
This  lesson  a  few  of  them — very  few,  I  fear — have 
learned.  The  majority  accept  the  fact,  in  a  blind 
sort  of  way,  as  deliverance  from  restraint,  as  li- 
cense to  do  what  they  will.  But  their  freedom  can 
never  bring  them  its  fullness  of  blessing  till  the 
heart  of  the  emancipated  race  is  penetrated  and 
saturated  with  this  conception  :  "  The  good  hand 
of  God  is  in  all  our  history ;  he  overruled  the 
slavers  who  brought  us  here  ;  he  overruled  slavery ; 
he  gave  us  our  freedom." 

I  would  not  diminish  their  gratitude  to  Mr. 
Lincoln  or  to  the  party  he  represented  ;  I  would 


Providence  in  Emancipation.  51 

be  glad  if  I  could  deepen  their  gratitude  to 
God. 

It  is  equally  important,  so  far  as  their  duties  to 
the  negroes  are  concerned,  that  the  people  of  the 
North  and  of  the  South  recognize  God's  hand  in 
his  providential  dealings  both  with  slavery  and  its 
termination. 

There  has  been,  I  must  believe,  much  sin  and 
unbelief,  as  well  as  confusion  of  thought,  on  both 
sides  in  our  attitude  toward  this  subject  of  the 
emancipation  of  the  slaves.  In  the  North,  with 
many  notable  exceptions,  there  has  been  much 
boasting  and  self-laudation.  Where  men  ought  to 
feel  humbly  that  God  has  used  them — used  them 
in  their  weakness  and  folly,  as  well  as  in  their 
strength  and  wisdom — as  unworthy  instruments  to 
accomplish  a  great  design,  they  have  boasted  over- 
much in  their  triumph  over  their  late  antagonists 
in  a  fierce  and  bloody  war.  Sometimes,  alas  !  there 
has  flamed  out  in  sermons  and  orations  and  essays 
somewhat  of  the  fatal  pride  of  Nebuchadnezzar,  in- 
toxicated with  his  greatness  :  "  Is  not  this  great 
Babylon,  that  I  have  built  for  the  house  of  the 
kingdom  by  the  might  of  my  power,  and  for  the 
honor  of  my  majesty?"  Proud  and  weak  man,  he 
had  forgotten  his  vision  of  the  great  tree  and  of 
the  warning  cry  of  "the  watchers  and  the  holy 
one." 

The  men  of  the  North  can  never  realize  the  vast 


52  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

import  of  the  freedom  of  the  negroes  in  America  so 
long  as  they  indulge  a  spirit  so  boastful  and  proud 
of  their  own  relations  to  emancipation.  Nor  can 
they  realize  their  high  duties  to  this  race,  whose 
preparation  for  a  great  future  has  been  only  begun. 
We  of  the  South  have  not  been  without  folly 
and  unbelief  and  sin  in  our  attitude  toward  this 
fact  of  emancipation.  We  have  been  slow  to  ac- 
cept its  full  significance,  even  when  we  fully  and 
finally  accepted  the  fact.  It  was  not  unnatural  that 
\ve  felt  bitterly  the  humiliations  of  our  overthrow, 
nor  that  we  writhed  in  agony  when  we  looked  upon 
the  poverty  and  desolation  of  our  land  when  it  was 
all  over.  It  was  not  unnatural  that  our  people  were 
slow  to  accept  the  issues  of  the  war.  (I  am  not 
speaking  of  what  was  wise,  but  of  what  is  natural.) 
It  was  not  unnatural  that  we  felt  ourselves  goaded 
to  desperation  by  many  of  the  requirements  and 
events  of  reconstruction.  History  will  not  deny 
that  there  were  unnecessary  exasperations  in  many 
of  the  methods  employed  to  settle  the  questions 
that  grew  out  of  the  war.  Rarely  have  a  brave 
and  high-spirited  people  endured  such  trials  of 
their  patience,  their  wisdom,  and  their  faith.  For 
many  follies  we  committed,  for  many  wrongs  that 
were  done  by  some  people  of  the  South,  there  is  no 
defense  to  be  made.  Nor  can  defense  be  made  for 
many  of  the  acts  of  the  conquerors  that  drove 
Southern  men  to  desperation.  Earth  and  Heaven 


Providence  in  Emancipation.  53 

know  there  were  wrongs  and  sins  enough  on  both 
sides  to  leave  small  room  for  boasting  to  either. 

When  all  the  facts  are  considered,  those  who 
know  human  nature  will  feel  no  surprise  that  the 
South  has  been  slow  and  reluctant  to  adjust  itself 
to  the  new  order  of  things.  As  it  seems  to  me  one 
of  the  many  sad  effects  of  our  unhappy  experience 
has  been  that  the  light  has  been  dimmed  in  which 
we  ought  to  have  seen  the  hand  of  God,  and  read 
the  lessons  of  his  providence.  As  a  wise  and  saint- 
ly man,  whose  calm  soul  has  been  lifted  above  the 
passions  of  the  hour,  recently  wrote  to  me :  "  Our 
new  position  has  been  forced  upon  us,  and  in  sev- 
eral respects  tyrannically  forced,  so  that  we  have 
come  slowly  to  see  Providence  in  the  change. 
With  bayonets  between  Providence  and  ourselves 
it  was  very  hard  to  see  the  good  in  and  through 
the  evil.  Large  allowance  should  be  made  for 
this."  I  believe  God  does  make  allowance,  and  so 
ought  men. 

Nevertheless,  it  is  our  sacred  duty  to  see  God 
wherever  God  is.  How  can  the  people  of  the 
South  ever  understand  this  "negro  question"  — 
both  slavery  and  emancipation — until  they  recog- 
nize God's  hand  in  this  long  and  troubled  his- 
tory ?  I  do  not  mean  recognize  God's  approval 
of  all  things,  but  God's  providence  in  all  things — 
masterful,  comprehensive,  overruling,  all-wise,  and 
good. 


54  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

This  much  to  me  is  clear;  until  God's  hand  in 
this  whole  history  is  recognized,  neither  the  men 
of  the  North  nor  the  men  of  the  South  will  or  can 
make  the  right  use  of  the  negro's  freedom. 

There  can  be  no  question,  I  think,  but  that 
emancipation  was  set  down  in  the  order  of  divine 
Providence.  Had  the  white  people  realized,  both 
in  thought  and  act,  their  relation  to  the  slaves, 
emancipation  might  have  come  sooner,  it  might 
have  come  later,  but  it  would  have  come  peaceably, 
and  when  both  masters  and  slaves  were  better  pre- 
pared for  the  change.  It  is  to  me  a  very  painful 
thought  that,  while  there  were  very  many  noble 
exceptions,  the  majority  of  masters  never  under- 
stood the  solemnity  of  their  trust  in  the  temporary 
guardianship  of  these  negroes  in  course  of  training. 
Many  of  them,  I  fear  the  larger  number,  recognized 
chiefly  a  property  interest  in  the  negroes.  Men 
with  this  feeling  uppermost  could  not  do  their  duty 
to  the  slaves.  But  God's  plans  must  not  be  marred 
by  human  ignorance  or  cupidity.  So  it  came  to 
pass  that  God  used  a  great  war  to  set  free  the 
negroes. 

If  the  hand  of  God  were  fully  and  devoutly  rec- 
ognized by  all  parties — by  the  people  of  the  North, 
by  the  people  of  the  South,  and  by  the  negroes — 
only  the  happiest  results  would  follow.  When  this 
truth  shines  clearly  upon  us  all  there  will  be  peace 
and  brotherhood.  This  truth  will  drive  out  passion 


Providence  in  Emancipation.  55 

and  prejudice.  The  man  of  the  North  will  be  less 
boastful  and  imperious,  less  self-satisfied  and  Phari- 
saical in  his  attitude  toward  the  South.  No  offense 
is  intended  by  the  use  of  this  word  Pharisaical. 
Its  application  is  not  meant  for  all  Northern  men, 
for  many  have  seea  too  much  of  the  true  light  to 
indulge  the  spirit  of  self-complacency.  I  use  the 
word  because  I  know  of  no  other  that  so  truly  ex- 
presses the  spirit  of  many  Northern  men — of  many, 
too,  who  hold  high  place  and  mold  public  opinion 
— in  their  long-indulged  habit  of  looking  upon  the 
South  as  a  sort  of  national  Nazareth.  I  put  it  to 
their  consciences  whether  they  have  not  overmuch 
and  over-often  indulged  the  spirit  and  used  the 
words  of  him  who  went  not  "  down  to  his  house 
justified  :"  "  God,  I  thank  thee,  that  I  am  not  as 
other  men  are,  ...  or  even  as  this  publican  ?" 

I  would  not  do  the  North  injustice,  nor  would  I 
claim  overmuch  for  the  South.  Southern  faults  I 
do  not  deny ;  Northern  excellencies  I  do  not  dis- 
parage. I  know  the  faults  of  the  Southern  people 
better  than  men  of  the  North  know  them,  and  I  feel 
them  more  keenly,  because,  alas !  part  of  them  are 
my  own. 

If  all  of  superiority  they  of  the  North  claim  be 
granted,  (and  they  are  superior  to  us  in  many 
things,  though  not  in  all,)  and  their  theory  of  the 
evils  of  slavery  be  true — which  I  accept  for  the  most 
part — then  where  is  there  occasion  for  boasting? 


56  OUR  BROTHER  ix  BLACK. 

Had  slavery  been  fastened  on  New  England  for 
generations,  are  the  men  of  New  England  prepared 
to  prove,  beyond  all  question,  that  they  would  now 
be  so  much  better  than  they  think  the  South  is? 
Should  they  not,  in  gratitude  for  deliverance  from 
the  curse  of  slavery  long  years  before  the  South  got 
its  release,  be  less  impatient  with  those  who,  ac- 
cording to  their  qwn  view  of  the  evils  of  slavery, 
could  not  be  much  better  than  they  are?  What 
would  we  think  of  the  wisdom,  to  say  nothing  of 
his  spirit,  of  a  missionary  who  should  begin  his  la- 
bors in  a  heathen  land  by  not  only  proving  idolatry 
to  be  a  lie,  but  by  denouncing  the  low  estate  of 
the  people  whom  that  idolatry  had  degraded? 
Have  they  ever  considered  fairly  that,  had  the  rela- 
tions of  the  sections  to  slavery  been  changed,  had 
the  South  been  freed  from  slavery  in  1790,  and 
New  England  burdened  with  it  till  1865,  they 
might  have  been  as  deficient  in  the  virtues  of  the 
best  civilization  as  they  believe  that  the  South  is, 
and  the  South  might  have  excelled  as  they  be- 
lieve that  they  have  excelled  ?  In  such  a  case,  what 
would  the  golden  rule  require  of  the  South  ? 

When  we  of  the  South  recognize,  as  we  ought, 
the  providence  of  God  in  the  emancipation  of  the 
negroes,  most  gracious  results  will  follow  in  us. 
The  spirit  of  resignation  to  God's  will  in  this  mat- 
ter will  go  further  than  any  thing  conceivable  by 
me  to  reconcile  us  to  the  instrument  employed  by 


Providence  in  Emancipation.  57 

that  Providence.  Such  a  spirit  would  go  far  to 
banish  whatever  "  wrath  and  bitterness  "  there  may 
be  in  us.  It  will  broaden  our  views  ;  it  will  lift  us 
up  to  a  higher  plane  of  thought  and  sentiment  and 
conduct. 

When  the  negroes  come  to  see,  as  I  trust  they 
may,  that  God  set  them  free,  only  using  men  and 
their  counsels  as  his  instruments,  then  a  new  and 
holier  feeling  will  come  into  their  hearts.  They 
cannot  realize  the  solemn  significance  of  their  free- 
dom so  long  as  they  forget  their  great  Deliverer  in 
their  over  consideration  of  the  instrument  he  em- 
ployed. 

The  emancipated  negro  can  never  have  the  right 
conscience  in  his  freedom,  can  never  realize  in  his 
inmost  soul  the  responsibilities  of  his  freedom, 
can  never  perform  aright  the  duties  of  free  citizen- 
ship, can  never  work  out  the  divine  plan  of  his  des- 
tiny, until  he  sees  clearly  and  feels  profoundly  that 
God,  the  Father  and  King  of  men,  bestowed  upon 
him  this  fearful  but  glorious  gift  of  freedom. 


58  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 


CHAPTER    VII. 

THE  EMANCIPATION  PROCLAMATION. 

"  I  "HAT  Mr.  Lincoln  was  truly  opposed  to  slavery, 
A  and  that  he  wished  and  sought  its  abolition, 
cannot  be  doubted.  That  he  issued  his  Emancipa- 
tion Proclamation  simply  or  chiefly  in  the  interests 
of  the  slaves,  and  in  order  to  set  them  free,  his 
own  words  deny.  His  grand  aim  was  to  "save  the 
Union,"  and  he  issued  his  proclamations  to  help  in 
saving  it.  This  subject  is  brought  forward  here 
only  because  it  should,  when  fully  understood,  deep- 
en and  fix  the  conviction  that  God,  and  not  man, 
gave  freedom  to  the  slaves. 

In  the  "  North  American  Review  "  for  February, 
1880,  is  an  interesting  and  instructive  article  on  the 
Emancipation  Proclamation  from  the  pen  of  Presi- 
dent James  C.  Welling,  who  was,  at  the  time  it  was 
issued,  one  of  the  editors  of  the  "  Intelligencer," 
Washington  city,  and  whose  opportunities  for  full 
information  were  complete.  Commenting  on  this 
article  in  the  "  North  American  Review  "  for  Au- 
gust, 1880,  Mr.  Richard  H.  Dana  commends  it  very 
highly,  and  says :  "  It  presents  the  subject  with 
great  ability  and  fullness  of  detail,  and,  as  far  as  my 


The  Emancipation  Proclamation.  59 

memory  goes,  it  is  the  first  article  in  an  American 
periodical  that  has  taken  up  the  subject  on  prin- 
ciple." 

Of  the  Proclamation  itself  President  Welling  says: 
"  The  Emancipation  Proclamation  is  the  most 
signal  fact  in  the  administration  of  President  Lin- 
coln. It  marks,  indeed,  the  sharp  and  abrupt  be- 
ginning of  '  the  Great  Divide '  which,  since  the 
upheaval  produced  by  the  late  civil  war,  has  sepa- 
rated the  polity  and  politics  of  the  ante-bellum  pe- 
riod from  the  polity  and  politics  of  the  post-bellum 
era.  No  other  act  has  been  so  warmly  praised  on 
the  one  hand,  or  so  warmly  opposed  on  the  other; 
and  perhaps  it  has  sometimes  been  equally  misun- 
derstood, in  its  real  nature  and  bearing,  by  those 
who  have  praised  it  and  by  those  who  have  de- 
nounced it.  The  domestic  institution  against  which 
it  was  leveled  having  now  passed  as  finally  into  the 
domain  of  history  as  the  slavery  of  Greece  and 
Rome,  it  would  seem  that  the  time  has  come  when 
we  can  review  this  act  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  in  the  calm 
light  of  reason,  without  serious  disturbance  from 
the  illusions  of  fancy  or  the  distortions  of  preju- 
dice." 

In  the  latter  part  of  August,  1862,  Mr.  Horace 
Greeley,  editor  of  the  "  New  York  Tribune,"  wrote  an 
editorial  in  his  paper  in  which,  as  President  Welling 
says,  "assuming  to  utter  the  prayer  of  twenty  mill- 
ions, Mr.  Greeley  called  on  the  President  with 


60  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

much  truculence  of  speech,  to  issue  a  proclamation 
of  freedom  to  all  slaves  in  the  Confederate  States." 
On  the  22d  of  the  month  Mr.  Lincoln  replied  to 
Mr.  Greeley's  editorial  through  the  "Intelligencer," 
published  in  Washington  city.  It  is  a  remarkable 
and  interesting  document.  It  was  written  about 
one  month  before  the  appearance  of  Mr.  Lincoln's 
preliminary  Proclamation,  in  which  he  gave  the 
Confederates  notice  that  if  they  did  not,  in  one 
hundred  days,  lay  down  their  arms  and  give  up 
their  cause,  he  would  proclaim  freedom  to  all  the 
slaves  in  the  States  at  war  with  the  Union  forces. 
The  "North  American  Review"  gives  us  an  en- 
graved copy,  a  fac-simile  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  letter  to 
Mr.  Greeley,  just  as  it  appeared  in  the  "  Intelli- 
gencer." It  is  straightforward,  unmistakable ;  it 
tells  exactly  what  the  great  war  President  thought 
and  felt  and  purposed  in  the  Proclamations  of  Eman- 
cipation that  appeared  soon  after.  It  is  a  most  read- 
able letter,  aside  from  its  historical  interest.  Com- 
paratively few  of  the  present  generation,  especially 
in  the  Southern  States  of  the  Union,  have  read  it. 
It  may  not  be  out  of  place  to  reproduce  it  here. 
I  give  it  in  full,  using  Mr.  Lincoln's  italics : 

"EXECUTIVE  MANSION,  WASHINGTON,  August  22, 1862. 

"HON.  HORACE  GREELEY: 

"  DEAR  SIR:   I  have  just  read  yours  of  the  iQth, 
addressed  to  myself  through  the  "  New  York  Trib- 


The  Emancipation  Proclamation.  61 

une."  If  there  be  in  it  any  statements  or  assump- 
tion of  facts  which  I  may  know  to  be  erroneous,  I 
do  not,  now  and  here,  controvert  them.  If  there 
be  in  it  any  inferences  which  I  may  believe  to  be 
falsely  drawn,  I  do  not,  now  and  here,  argue  against 
them.  If  there  be  perceptible  in  it  an  imperious 
and  dictatorial  tone,  I  waive  it  in  deference  to  an 
old  friend,  whose  heart  I  have  always  supposed  to 
be  right. 

"As  to  the  policy  I  seem  to  be  pursuing,  as  you 
say,  I  have  not  meant  to  leave  any  one  in  doubt. 

"  I  would  save  the  Union.  I  would  save  it  the 
shortest  way  under  the  Constitution.  The  sooner 
the  national  authority  can  be  restored  the  nearer 
the  Union  will  be  '  the  Union  as  it  was.'  [Here  is 
a  sentence  marked  out  in  the  engraved  copy,  be- 
cause the  editors  of  the  "Intelligencer"  insisted 
that  it  was  not  dignified  enough  for  such  a  paper: 
"  Broken  eggs  can  never  be  mended,  and  the  longer 
the  breaking  proceeds  the  more  will  be  broken."]  If 
there  be"  those  who  would  not  save  the  Union,  un- 
less they  could  at  the  same  time  destroy  slavery,  I  do 
not  agree  with  them.  My  paramount  object  in  this 
'struggle  is  to  save  the  Union,  and  is  not  either  to 
save  or  to  destroy  slavery.  If  I  could  save  the 
Union  without  freeing  any  slave  I  would  do  it,  and  if 
I  could  save  it  by  freeing  #//the  slaves  I  would  do  it ; 
and  if  I  could  save  it  by  freeing  some  and  leaving 
others  alone  I  would  also  do  that.  What  I  do  about 


62  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

slavery  and  the  colored  race,  I  do  because  I  believe 
it  helps  to  save  the  Union ;  and  what  I  forbear  I 
forbear  because  I  do  not  believe  it  would  help  to 
save  the  Union.  I  shall  do  less  whenever  I  shall 
believe  what  I  am  doing  hurts  the  cause,  and  I  shall 
do  more  whenever  I  shall  believe  doing  more  will 
help  the  cause.  I  shall  try  to  correct  errors  when 
shown  to  be  errors ;  and  I  shall  adopt  new  views  so 
fast  as  they  shall  appear  to  be  true  views. 

"I  have  here  stated  my  purpose  according  to  my 
view  of  official  duty;  and  I  intend  no  modification 
of  my  oft-expressed  personal  wish  that  all  men, 
every-where,  should  be  free. 

"Yours,  A.  LINCOLN." 

This  is,  in  many  respects,  a  very  notable  letter. 
It  is  wholly  characteristic  of  its  remarkable  author, 
whose  assassination  has  been  mourned  by  millions 
of  Southern  people,  not  only  on  account  of  the  das- 
tardly crime  of  his  murder,  but  because  the  wiser 
ones  among  them  have  long  ago  settled  down  into 
the  belief  that,  in  the  death  of  Abraham  Lincoln, 
they  lost  one  who  would  have  dealt  with  them  in 
the  spirit  of  his  own  beautiful  words,  "  With  malice 
toward  none,  with  charity  for  all."' 

This  is  clear :  the  man,  Abraham  Lincoln,  wished 
all  slaves  to  be  free ;  the  President  put  the  Union 
before  all  things.  If  freeing  them  would  help  to 
save  the  Union,  he  would  free  them ;  if  to  save  the 


The  Emancipation  Proclamation.  63 

Union  it  had  been  necessary  to  keep  all  of  them, 
or  part  of  them,  in  slavery,  he  would  keep  them  in 
slavery.  And  in  point  of  historic  fact  the  Emanci- 
pation Proclamation,  when  it  came,  did  not  propose 
to  set  all  the  slaves  free;  in  Maryland  and  Ken- 
tucky, and  in  all  the  slave  States  not  recognized 
officially  as  being  in  rebellion,  the  slaves  were  left 
slaves.  The  Proclamation  was  hurled  at  "  rebellion," 
not  at  slavery.  Nothing  can  be  plainer  than  this. 
On  the  loth  of  March,  1862,  President  Welling  says, 
"  Mr.  Lincoln  had  said  that  as  long  as  he  remained 
President  the  people  of  Maryland  (and,  therefore, 
of  the  Border  States)  had  nothing  to  fear  for  their 
peculiar  domestic  institution,  '  either  by  direct  ac- 
tion of  the  government  or  by  indirect  action,  or 
through  the  emancipation  of  slaves  in  the  District 
of  Columbia,  or  the  confiscation  of  Southern  prop- 
erty in  slaves.' ' 

Mr.  Lincoln  had  little  faith  in  the  Proclamation's 
bringing  any  deliverance  to  the  slaves.  On  the  I3th 
of  September,  1862,  nine  days  before  the  "  Prelimi- 
nary Proclamation"  was  issued,  a  delegation  of 
Chicago  clergymen  waited  upon  the  President,  urg- 
ing him  strenuously  to  issue  a  proclamation  freeing 
the  slaves.  He  answered  them  :  "  What  good  would 
a  proclamation  of  emancipation  from  me  do,  espe- 
cially as  we  are  now  situated  ?  I  do  not  want 
to  issue  a  document  that  the  whole  world  will  see 
must  be  inoperative,  like  the  Pope's  bull  against 


64  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

the  comet.  Would  my  word  free  the  slaves  when 
I  cannot  even  enforce  the  Constitution  in  the  rebel 
States?" 

Mr.  Lincoln  was  in  great  straits ;  the  border 
States,  and  the  party  more  or  less  in  sympathy 
with  them,  were  pressing  him  for  pledges  that  slav- 
ery should  not  be  interfered  with  ;  the  "  Greeley 
faction"  of  the  Republican  party  were  urging  im- 
mediate emancipation.  President  Welling  says — 
and  it  shows  us  Mr.  Lincoln's  agony: 

"  It  is  true  that  only  a  few  days  previously,  [to 
the  meeting  with  the  Chicago  preachers,]  'when 
the  rebel  army  was  at  Frederick,'  [September  6,] 
he  had  registered  a  vow  in  heaven  that  he  would 
issue  a  proclamation  of  emancipation  so  soon  as 
the  Confederates  should  be  driven  out  of  Mary- 
land ;  but  this  was  the  conduct  of  a  man  who,  in  a 
perplexing  state  of  incertitude,  resolves  his  doubts 
by  '  throwing  a  lot  in  the  lap,'  and  leaving  '  the 
whole  disposing  thereof  to  be  of  the  Lord;'  or,  as  I 
prefer  to  believe,  it  was  that  prudent  and  reverent 
waiting  on  Providence  by  which  the  President 
sought  to  guard  against  the  danger  of  identifying 
the  Proclamation  in  the  popular  mind  with  a  panic 
cry  of  despair — in  which  latter  case  the  hesitation 
of  Mr.  Lincoln  only  serves  to  set  in  a  stronger  light 
the  significant  fact  that  other  than  considerations 
of  military  necessity  were  held  to  dominate  the 
situation ;  for,  if  they  alone  had  been  prevalent,  the 


The  Emancipation  Proclamation.  65 

Proclamation  could  never  have  come  more  ap- 
propriately than  when  the  military  need  Was 
greatest." 

The  Proclamation  was  not  simply  "  a  war  meas- 
ure," but  "  a  political  measure  ;"  it  was  absolutely 
necessary  to  Mr.  Lincoln  to  satisfy  that  element  of 
his  party  that  Mr.  Greeley  fairly  represented  in  order 
to  carry  on  the  war  at  all.  For  its  interest  and  im- 
portance I  make  another  and  longer  extract  from 
President  Welling's  article : 

"  The  proximate  and  procuring  cause  of  the 
Proclamation,  as  I  conceive,  is  not  far  to  seek.  It 
was  issued  primarily  and  chiefly  as  a  political  ne- 
cessity, and  took  on  the  character  of  a  military 
necessity  only  because  the  President  had  been 
brought  to  believe  that  if  he  did  not  keep  the 
radical  portion  of  his  party  at  his  back  he  could 
not  long  be  sure  of  keeping  an  army  at  the  front. 
He  had  begun  the  conduct  of  the  war  on  the 
theory  that  it  was  waged  for  the  restoration  of  the 
Union  under  the  Constitution,  as  it  was  at  the  out- 
break of  the  secession  movement.  He  sedulously 
labored  to  keep  the  war  in  this  line  of  direction. 
He  publicly  deprecated  its  degeneration  into  a  re- 
morseless revolutionary  struggle.  He  cultivated 
every  available  alliance  with  the  Union  men  of  the 
border  States.  He  sympathized  with  them  in  their 
loyalty,  and  in  the  political  theory  on  which  it  was 

based.     But  the  most  active  and  energetic  wing  of 

6 


66  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

the  Republican  party  had  become,  as  the  war 
waxed  hotter,  more  and  more  hostile  to  this  '  bor- 
der-State theory  of  the  war,'  until,  in  the  end,  its 
fiery  and  impetuous  leaders  did  not  hesitate  to 
threaten  him  with  repudiation  as  a  political  chief, 
and  even  began  in  some  cases  to  hint  the  expe- 
diency of  withholding  supplies  for  the  prosecution 
of  the  war,  unless  the  President  should  remove 
'pro-slavery  generals'  from  the  command  of  our 
armies,  and  adopt  an  avowedly  antislavery  policy 
in  the  future  conduct  of  the  war.  Thus  placed 
between  two  stools,  and  liable  between  them  to  fall 
to  the  ground,  he  determined  at  last  to  plant  him- 
self firmly  on  the  stool  which  promised  the  surest 
and  safest  support. 

"  I  am  able  to  state  with  confidence  that  Mr. 
Lincoln  gave  this  explanation  of  his  changed  policy 
a  few  days  after  the  Preliminary  Proclamation  of 
September  22  had  been  issued.  The  Hon.  Edward 
Stanly,  the  Military  Governor  of  North  Carolina, 
immediately  on  receiving  a  copy  of  that  paper,  has- 
tened to  Washington  for  the  purpose  of  seeking  an 
authentic  and  candid  explanation  of  the  grounds 
on  which  Lincoln  had  based  such  a  sudden  and 
grave  departure  from  the  previous  theory  of  the 
war.  Mr.  Stanly  had  accepted  the  post  of  Military 
Governor  of  North  Carolina  at  a  great  personal 
sacrifice,  and  with  the  distinct  understanding  that 
the  war  was  to  be  conducted  on  the  same  constitu- 


The  Emancipation  Proclamation.  67 

tional  theory  which  had  presided  over  its  inception  * 
by  the  Federal  Government,  and  hence  the  procla- 
mation not  only  took  him  by  surprise,  but  seemed 
to  him  an  act  of  perfidy.  In  this  view  he  hastily 
abandoned  his  post,  and  came  to  throw  up  his  com- 
mission and  return  to  California,  where  he  had  pre- 
viously resided.  Before  doing  so  he  sought  an 
audience  with  the  President — in  fact,  held  several 
interviews  with  him — on  the  subject ;  and  knowing 
that,  as  a  public  journalist,  I  was  deeply  interested 
in  the  matter,  he  came  to  report  to  me  the  sub- 
stance of  the  President's  communications.  That 
substance  was  recorded  in  my  diary  as  follows : 

"  '  September  27.  Had  a  call  to-day  at  the  "  In- 
telligencer" office  from  the  Hon.  Edward  Stanly, 
Military  Governor  of  North  Carolina.  In  a  long 
and  interesting  conversation  Mr.  Stanly  related 
to  me  the  substance  of  several  interviews  which 
he  had  with  the  President  respecting  the  Proc- 
lamation of  Freedom.  Mr.  Stanly  said  that  the 
President  had  stated  to  him  that  the  Proclama- 
tion had  become  a  civil  necessity  to  prevent  the 
radicals  from  openly  embarrassing  the  govern- 
ment in  the  conduct  of  the  war.  The  President 
expressed  the  belief  that,  without  the  Proclamation 
for  which  they  had  been  clamoring,  the  radicals 
would  take  the  extreme  step  in  Congress  of  with- 
holding supplies  for  carrying  on  the  war,  leaving 
the  whole  land  in  anarchy.  Mr.  Lincoln  said  that 


68  „  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

'he  had  prayed  to  the  Almighty  to  save  him  from 
this  necessity,  adopting-  the  very  language  of  our 
Saviour,  "  If  it  be  possible,  let  this  cup  pass  from 
me  ;"  but  the  prayer  had  not  been  answered.'  " 

Of  the  Preliminary,  or  warning,  Proclamation  of 
September,  1862,  the  following  is  the  important 
portion  : 

"  That  on  the  first  day  of  January,  in  the  year  of 
our  Lord  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  sixty- 
three,  all  persons  held  as  slaves  within  any  States, 
or  designated  parts  of  a  State,  the  people  whereof 
shall  then  be  in  rebellion  against  the  United  States, 
shall  be  then,  thenceforward,  and  forever  free  ;  and 
the  Executive  Government  of  the  United  States, 
including  the  military  and  naval  authority  thereof, 
will  recognize  and  maintain  the  freedom  of  such 
persons,  and  will  do  no  act  or  acts  to  repress  such 
persons,  or  any  of  them,  in  any  efforts  they  may 
make  for  their  actual  freedom. 

"  That  the  Executive  will,  on  the  first  day  of 
January  aforesaid,  by  proclamation,  designate  the 
States  and  parts  of  States,  if  any,  in  which  the  peo- 
ple thereof  respectively  shall  then  be  in  rebellion 
against  the  United  States ;  and  the  fact  that  any 
State,  or  the  people  thereof,  shall  on  that  day  be  in 
good  faith  represented  in  the  Congress  of  the 
United  States  by  members  chosen  thereto  at  elec- 
tions wherein  a  majority  of  the  qualified  voters  of 
such  State  shall  have  participated,  shall,  in  the  ab- 


TJie  Emancipation  Proclamation.  69 

sence  of  strong  countervailing  testimony,  be  deemed 
conclusive  evidence  that  such  States,  and  the  peo- 
ple thereof,  are  not  then  in  rebellion  against  the 
United  States." 

What  if  the  Confederate  leaders  had  given  up 
their  struggle  before  January  I,  1863? 

January  I,  1863,  Mr.  Lincoln  issued  the  Procla- 
mation, declaring  all  slaves  as  free  in  certain  States, 
and  parts  of  States,  which  he  designated,  as  he  had 
set  forth  in  the  warning  of  September  22,  1862. 

This  Proclamation  did  not  touch  such  States  as 
Maryland  and  Kentucky.  The  slaves  in  the  other 
Southern  States  were  practically  set  free  as  the 
Union  armies  advanced,  conquering  the  country. 
But  emancipation  needed  more  than  the  President's 
Proclamation,  as  he  had  said  before  it  was  issued, 
and  as  he  showed  afterward  in  urging  an  amend- 
ment to  the  Constitution,  forever  abolishing  and 
prohibiting  slavery  in  the  United  States. 

Mr.  Dana,  who  was  the  devoted  friend  and  the 
earnest  champion  of  Mr.  Lincoln  through  all  the 
"  storm  and  stress  "  of  those  eventful  days,  states 
the  truth  of  the  case  in  his  review  of  President 
Welling's  paper:  "No  doubt  the  proclamation  of 
January  i,  1863,  though  such  were  not  its  terms, 
brought  about  a  system  of  progressive  military 
emancipation,  taking  effect  as  we  advanced.  But 
for  the  prohibition  of  slavery  thereafter  in  the  con- 
quered States,  under  their  Constitutions,  as  well  as 


70  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

in  the  loyal  States,  very  different  action  was,  re- 
quired. The  abolition  of  the  slave  system,  as  it 
stood  in  the  Constitutions  of  so  many  States,  was 
beyond  the  reach  of  the  military  power  of  the  Pres- 
ident, or  of  Congress.  It  called  for  the  ultimate, 
sovereign  legislative  action  of  '  we,  the  people  of 
the  United  States,'  in  the  form  of  an  amendment 
to  the  Constitution ;  and  this,  when  adopted,  pre- 
cluded all  question  as  to  attempted  past  emancipa- 
tion or  abolition  by  proclamation." 

No  man  knew  better  than  Mr.  Lincoln  that  his 
Proclamation  did  not  secure  freedom  to  the  slaves. 
On  this  point  President  Welling  says :  "  With  a 
candor  which  did  him  honor  he  made  no  pretense 
of  concealing  its  manifold  infirmities  either  from 
his  own  eyes,  or  from  the  eyes  of  the  people,  so 
soon  as  Congress  proposed,  in  a  way  of  undoubted 
constitutionality  and  of  undoubted  efficacy,  to  put 
an  end  to  slavery  every-where  in  the  Union  by  an 
amendment  to  the  Constitution.  Remarking  on 
that  amendment  at  the  time  of  its  proposal,  he 
said,  [President  Welling  here  quotes  Raymond's 
"Life  and  State  Papers  of  Abraham  Lincoln:"] 
'A  question  might  be  raised  as  to  whether  the 
Proclamation  was  legally  valid.  It  might  be  added 
that  it  aided  only  those  who  came  into  our  lines, 
and  that  it  was  inoperative  as  to  those  who  did  not 
give  themselves  up;  or  that  it  would  have  no  effect 
upon  the  children  of  those  born  hereafter ;  in  fact, 


The  Emancipation  Proclamation.      >       71 

it  could  be  urged  that  it  did  not  meet  the  evil. 
But  this  amendment  is  a  king's  cure  for  all  evils; 
it  winds  the  whole  thing  up." 

The  negro's  title  to  freedom  does  not  rest  in  Mr. 
Lincoln's  Proclamation,  but  in  the  Amendment  to 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.  No  doubt 
the  "  logic  of  events,"  the  triumph  of  the  Union 
armies,  and  the  complete  and  final  overthrow  of  the 
Confederate  Government,  gave  tremendous  potency 
to  Mr.  Lincoln's  Proclamation  ;  but  the  negro's 
ricrht  to  his  freedom  is  found  in  the  amendments 

& 

to  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  which 
were  first  adopted  by  Congress,  and  made  complete 
by  the  ratification  of  the  several  States. 

This  is  the  language  of  the  "  amendment "  which 
gives  legality  to  the  negro's  freedom,  and  guaran- 
tees it  to  him  and  to  his  children  forever : 

"ARTICLE  XIII. — Section  i.  Neither  slavery  nor 
involuntary  servitude,  except  as  a  punishment  for 
crime,  whereof  the  party  shall  have  been  duly  con- 
victed, shall  exist  within  the  United  States,  or  any 
place  subject  to  their  jurisdiction. 

'•'•Section  2.  Congress  shall  have  power  to  enforce 
this  article  by  appropriate  legislation." 

Whether  the  human  instruments,  used  by  God's 
providence  to  effect  the  emancipation  of  the  negroes, 
were  wise  or  just  in  their  methods,  I  do  not  discuss. 
Best  or  worst,  it  was  done  in  this  way,  and  it  is  done 
forever.  That  Mr.  Lincoln  was  truly  opposed  to 


72  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

slavery  I  do  not  doubt ;  that  his  Proclamation  re- 
ceived the  approval  of  the  majority  of  the  Christian 
world,  I  do  not  doubt ;  that  the  fact  of  emancipation 
— if  not  the  mode — now  receives  the  approval  of 
those  whom  it  made  poor  for  a  time,  I  do  not  doubt. 
Whatever  may  have  been  the  secret  thoughts  and 
struggles  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  mind ;  however  his  Proc- 
lamation may  have  been  precipitated  by  the  e,xi- 
gencies  of  a  colossal  war  and  by  the  urgency  of  the 
most  vigorous  section  of  the  party  that  put  him  in 
power;  however  emancipation  might  have  been  de- 
layed had  the  great  question 'in  dispute  of  battle  been 
compromised  while  the  war  was  still  in  progress ; 
however  pleasing  Mr.  Lincoln's  course  may  have 
been  to  the  majority  of  the  Northern  people ;  and 
however  displeasing  it  may  have  been  to  the  South- 
ern people,  this  much  at  least  is  clear,  the  slaves 
are  all  free,  and  their  freedom  is  recognized  by  all 
men  every-where.  And  to  me  it  is  unthinkable 
that  the  providence  of  God,  overruling  all  things — 
the  good  and  the  evil,  the  wise  and  the  unwise 
methods  and  purposes  of  men  on  both  sides  of  the 
contest — did  not  give  freedom  to  the  slaves,  for 
their  own  good,  for  the  good  of  the  white  race,  for 
the  good  of  two  continents,  and  for  the  glory  of  his 
Son,  Jesus  Christ,  the  Saviour  of  men. 


The  Frecdinan  Made  a  Citizen.  73 


CHAPTER  Vlli. 

THE  FREED  MAN  MADE  A  CITIZEN. 

r  I  "'HE  emancipated  negroes  are  citizens.  They 
-A-  were  made  citizens  by  amendments  to  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States.  The  amend- 
ments were  ordained  by  the  conjoined  action  of 
Congress  and  of  a  sufficient  number  of  States  to 
meet  the  constitutional  requirement  in  such  a  case. 

The  vital  points  in  these  amendments,  so  far  as 
the  negro's  citizenship  is  concerned,  are  found  in 
the  Fourteenth  and  Fifteenth  Amendments.  The 
Fourteenth  reads : 

" Section  I.  All  persons  born  or  naturalized  in  the 
United  States,  and  subject  to  the  jurisdiction  there- 
of, are  citizens  of  the  United  States  and  of  the  State 
wherein  they  reside.  No  State  shall  make  or  en- 
force any  law  which  shall  abridge  the  privileges  or 
immunities  of  citizens  of  the  United  States;  nor 
shall  any  State  deprive  any  person  of  life,  liberty, 
or  property,  without  due  process  of  law,  nor  deny 
to  any  person  within  its  jurisdiction  the  equal  pro- 
tection of  the  laws." 

The  Fifteenth  Amendment  reads : 

"Section  i.  The  right  of  citizens  of  the  United 


74 

States  to  vote  shall  not  be  denied  or  abridged  by 
the  United  States  or  any  State  on  account  of  race, 
color,  or  previous  condition  of  servitude. 

"  Section  2.  The  Congress  shall  have  power  to 
enforce  this  article  by  appropriate  legislation." 

The  negroes  are  not  only  citizens  in  that  they 
are  entitled  to  complete  protection  under  the  laws 
in  all  their  rights  of  person  and  property,  but  also 
citizens  in  that  all  males,  twenty-one  years  old, 
not  disqualified  by  crime  or  other  conditions  that 
would  disqualify  a  white  man,  are  entitled  to  vote. 
Every  negro  man  of  lawful  age,  if  otherwise  quali- 
fied, has  the  same  legal  right  to  vote  that  the  Pres- 
ident of  the  United  States  has. 

It  is  now  practically  too  late,  in  this  country,  to 
argue  the  advantages  or  disadvantages  of  universal 
suffrage.  Much  has  been  said  for  and  against  the 
doctrine  of  universal  suffrage — "  manhood  suffrage," 
as  the  phrase  is.  But  the  time  is  past  for  such  argu- 
ments ;  facts  and  not  theories  must  be  considered 
now.  The  people,  acting  through  their  represent- 
atives, some  because  they  thought  it  wise,  some  as 
a  means  of  political  power,  and  others  because 
they  were  obliged  to  do  it,  have  adopted  universal 
suffrage  as  a  fundamental  principle  and  have  in- 
corporated it  into  our  entire  political  system.  We 
must  now  make  the  best  of  it.  After  all,  it  may  be 
best  as  it  is;  such  matters  are  only  determined  by 
experiment ;  we  are  now  making  the  test.  Such 


The  Frecdman  Made  a  Citizen.  75 

experiments  cannot  be  worked  out  in  a  year,  or 
even  in  a  generation.  We  know  too  little  of  such 
matters  to  dogmatize  about  them;  after  all  the 
experience  and  wisdom  of  the  past,  what  we  call 
statesmanship  is  but  a  complicated,  difficult,  and 
uncertain  experiment.  But  common  sense  teaches 
at  least  this  much  :  when  we  cannot  have  what  we 
prefer  we  should  do  the  very  best  we  can  with 
what  we  have. 

Whether  the  wholesale  enfranchisement  of  the 
negro  was  a  party  measure,  as  his  sudden  and  un- 
conditioned emancipation  was  a  war  measure  urged 
on  by  a  political  necessity ;  whether  it  was  done 
in  a  paroxysm  of  feeling  and  sentimentalism ; 
whether  it  was  designed,  in  part  at  least,  as  a  re- 
pression of  any  reactionary  tendencies  in  the  "  old 
masters,"  we  need  not  discuss  at  this  time.  When 
there  is  less  noise  of  men  running  to  and  fro  with 
dim  lanterns  or  flaming  torches  in  their  hands ; 
when  there  is  less  outcry  and  dissonance  of  fiercely 
contending  passions ;  when  there  is  less  sensitive- 
ness and  prejudice,  philosophical  historians  may 
discuss,  with  whatever  ability  and  insight  may  be 
given  to  them,  these  difficult  subjects  that  are  now 
entangled  in  a  hundred  folds  of  warring  interests 

O  «-* 

and  ambitions.  But  we  must  deal  with  the  facts  as 
we  find  them.  A  wise  man  who  proposes  to  rebuild 
a  burned  house  will  not  quarrel  witW  his  neighbors 
or  workmen  about  the  origin  of  the  fire,  nor  ex- 


76  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

haust  his  time  and  energies  in  fruitless  lamenta- 
tions over  the  unsuitableness  of  his  materials.  He 
cannot  live  with  his  family  under  the  open  sky. 
unless  he  proposes  to  be  a  savage.  A  house  he 
must  have  ;  he  will  use  his  materials  to  the  best 
possible  advantage ;  if  he  cannot  procure  the  best 
.  stone  out  of  the  quarries,  he  will  use  the  best 
he  has.  If  he  can  do  no  better  he  will  build 
of  sun-dried  bricks,  or  of  bricks  that  have  twice 
known  fire.  Even  an  adobe  house  is  better  than 
none. 

At  this  time  the  people  of  the  South  may  read 
with  profit  the  life  and  labors  of  Nehemiah.  His- 
tory does  not  record  a  fairer,  truer  patriotism  than 
his.  He  gave  up  a  pleasant  and  profitable  office 
"  in  Shushan  the  palace"  to  rebuild  Jerusalem,  that 
had  been  laid  waste  in  bitter  wars  and  relentless 
sieges.  There  are  few  more  pathetic  passages  in 
the  lives  of  patriotic  men  than  we  see  in  Nehe- 
miah when  he  "went  out  by  night  .  .  .  and  viewed 
the  walls  of  Jerusalem,  which  were  broken  down,  and 
the  gates  thereof  were  consumed  with  fire."  For 
his  great  task  of  rebuilding  the  sacred  city  he  had 
small  resources  and  manifold  discouragements. 
His  friends  were  dispirited  and  unorganized;  his 
enemies  were  strong,  bold,  scoffing.  He  had  to 
build  the  new  out  of  the  ruins  of  the  old  city. 
When,  after  incredible  exertions,  he  had  rallied  a 
small  but  united  and  determined  company  for  the 


The  Freedman  Made  a  Citizen.  77 

work  of  restoration,  there  was  not  lacking  a  San- 
ballat  to  mock  their  patriotic  efforts.  No  doubt 
many  of  those  Jews  who  held  their  brethren  down 
under  "  mortgages  and  bondage,"  were  more  in 
sympathy  with  Sanballat  than  with  Nehcmiah. 
Which  was  harder  for  the  brave  and  great-hearted 
patriot  to  bear,  the  jeers  of  his  enemies  or  the  apa- 
thy or  secret  hate  of  those  who  ought  to  have  been 
his  helpers,  it  would  be  hard  to  say.  There  were 
not  lacking  Jews  who  said, "  O,  you  can't  do  any 
thing  with  the  ruins  of  the  old  Jerusalem."  As  for 
Sanballat,  this  describes  him,  and  not  only  him,  but 
some  of  our  own  times  who  have  for  the  strug- 
gling South  only  jeers  and  contempt: 

"  But  it  came  to  pass,  that  when  Sanballat  heard 
that  we  builded  the  wall,  he  was  wroth,  and  took 
great  indignation,  and  mocked  the  Jews.  And  he 
spoke  before  his  brethren  and  the  army  of  Samaria, 
and  said,  What  do  these  feeble  Jews?  will  they 
fortify  themselves?  will  they  sacrifice?  will  they 
make  an  end  in  a  day  ?  will  they  revive  the  stones 
out  of  the  heaps  of  the  rubbish  which  are  burned." 

The  South  has  heard  this  Sanballat  voice  many 
times  since  Appomattox.  And  Sanballat  has  had 
to  help-  him  a  class  of  Southern  men,  as  greedy  as 
vultures  and  as  remorseless  as  death,  who  have 
done  nothing  to  rebuild  our  broken  walls  and  our 
burned  gates,  who  have  used  their  power  and  op- 
portunity only  to  hold  faster  the  poor  and  the 


78  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

helpless  of  their  own  brethren.  In  this  old  history 
there  is  one  other  character  who  still  survives  to 
play  his  little  part  of  imitation.  There  was  one 
Tobiah,  small  echo  of  Sanballat,  and  this  is  the 
picture  of  him :  "  Now  Tobiah  the  Ammonite  was 
by  him,  and  he  said,  Even  that  which  they  build, 
if  a  fox  go  up,  he  shall  even  break  down  their  stone 
wall." 

But  Sanballat's  prophecies  came  to  naught,  and 
Tobiah 's  mean  jests  came  back  to  him.  Nehemiah 
and  his  patriotic  band  did  rebuild  Jerusalem,  its 
walls  and  its  gates.  Let  the  men  of  the  South 
take  courage,  and  out  of  the  ruins  of  their  old  sys- 
tem and  out  of  the  very  difficulties  of  the  new  era, 
build  up  a  better  civilization  than  they  ever  knew. 
They  can  if  they  will  ;  "  the  eternal  powers "  will 
help  them. 

Let  us  consider  the  difficulties  of  our  position, 
as  Nehemiah,  before  he  began  to  rebuild,  surveyed 
the  ruins  of  the  city  of  his  fathers,  recalling  its  van- 
ished glories  that  he  might  strengthen  his  heart  for 
the  work  of  restoration.  We  find  ourselves  face 
to  face  with  as  difficult  a  problem  as  was  ever  com- 
mitted to  any  people  of  any  age.  Take  any  view 
possible  of  the  history  of  the  emancipation  and 
enfranchisement  of  the  negroes,  and  this  portentous 
fact  remains :  nearly  a  million  of  men,  who  had 
been  slaves,  were  made  voters  before  they  could 
read.  They  were  told  to  vote  upon  the  most  diffi- 


The  Freedman  Made  a  Citizen.  79 

cult  and  complicated  of  all  questions,  questions  of 
public  policy,  involving  the  interests  of  half  a  con- 
tinent and  of  nearly  fifty  millions  of  people,  before 
they  could  read  or  understand  the  Constitution 
under  which  they  were  governed. 

Such  an  experiment  was  never  made  before  by 
any  people.  There  is  something  impressive  in  the 
very  audacity  of  the  measure,  and  in  the  greatness 
of  the  danger  which  it  involves.  Those  who  pro- 
posed and  carried  it  through  had  either  a  sublime 
confidence  in  the  government  they  put  in  jeopardy, 
or  an  amazing  indifference  to  the  dangers  to  which 
they  exposed  its  institutions,  or  a  great  passion  that 
blinded  their  eyes.  Those  who  wonder  that  con- 
fusion came  into  our  politics  are  not  read  in  his- 
tory ;  they  are  not  wise  in  the  knowledge  of  human 
nature.  The  wonder  is  not  that  disorders,  corrup- 
tions, violence,  followed  the  introduction  of  this 
new  and  strange  element — this  fearful  combination 
of  power  and  ignorance — but  that  utter  chaos  did 
not  follow.  It  is,  perhaps,  not  too  much  to  say 
there  was  never  any  other  government,  there  is  not 
to-day  any  other  government  in  the  world,  capable 
of  enduring  such  a  strain  as  the  American  people 
put  upon  their  civil  institutions  between  1865  and 
1870.  Surely  there  is  in  the  American  system  of 
government,  there  is  in  this  -Republic  of  ours,  a 
vitality  never  manifested  by  any  other  system  in 
any  nation  or  time. 


8o  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

What  is  the  explanation  of  this,  the  most  won- 
derful fact  in  our  history— the  fact  that  placing  the 
ballot  in  the  hands  of  nearly  a  million  of  men,  of 
alt  others  the  least  qualified  to  perform  this  high 
function  of  citizenship,  has  not  before  this  time  de- 
stroyed the  Republic  ?  And  what  reasons  have  we 
for  the  hope  that  our  institutions  may  continue  to 
survive -such  trials  of  their  stability?  Statesmen 
and  philosophers  can,  no  doubt,  give  us  learned 
and  profound  answers.  There  are  some  that  will 
occur  to  plain  people  who  reflect  on  these  subjects: 
I.  Ours  is  a  new  country;  it  offers  large  oppor- 
tunity, outside  of  politics,  for  the  expenditure  of 
restless  energy.  2.  The  American  people  are,  as  a 
class,  intensely  practical.  They  are  not  swept  away 
by  a  craze.  Emotional  revolutions,  like  some  that 
have  occurred  in  France,  are  impossible  in  this 
country.  3.  The  form  and  genius  of  our  govern- 
ment make  it  capable  of  vast  adjustability.  4.  The 
preponderance  of  Christian  principle  and  sentiment 
has  done  more  to  save  us  than  any  other  character- 
istic of  our  people  or  government.  5.  Above  all, 
the  providence  of  God. 

Whether  the  next  generation  shall  witness  the 
continuance  of  good  government  depends  largely 
upon  a  condition  not  now  satisfied,  namely,  the 
education  of  these  untaught  voters.  (I  do  not  for- 
get the  great  and  sore  need  of  the  education  of  all 
white  voters,  also,  wherever  found.)  If  we  of  to- 


The  Freedman  made  a  Citizen.  81 

day  take  the  matter  in  hand  as  we  ought,  and  teach 
these  new  citizens  and  voters  all  that  we  can  teach 
them  of  their  duties,  and  prepare  them  for  their 
performance  as  well  as  we  can  prepare  them,  our 
children  will  "  rise  up  and  call  us  blessed."  But  is 
it  irreverent  to  ask,  Whether  we  may  rely  upon 
divine  Providence  to  continue  to  bless  us  if  we  are 
unfaithful  to  the  plain  duties  that  are  pressing 
upon  us  ?  Providence  blesses  the  use  of  right 
means  to  good  ends. 

The  fact  that  the  emancipated  negro  was  a  voter, 
and  that  practically  his  vote  was  not  his  own,  made 
the  struggle  hard  for  the  new  citizen  from  1865  to 
1880.  It  will  never  be,  in  some  respects,  at  least, 
so  hard  for  him  again,  unless  there  is  unexampled 
stupidity  somewhere.  For  now  his  vote  is  sought 
in  the  South.  It  has  been  divided  once,  in  some 
States,  at  least.  Henceforth  it  will  be  divided 
many  times ;  it  is  almost  certain  that  it  will  never 
be  "  solid  "  again.  It  may  be,  in  some  localities, 
better  for  the  new  citizen's  personal  safety;  per- 
haps it  will  be  worse  for  his  morals.  Wise  men 
will  see  danger  here ;  would  that  they  knew  how  to 
meet  it ! 

Free  man  and  citizen  our  colored  brother  is,  and 
so  he  will  remain.  He  will  never  be  re-enslaved  ; 
he  will  never  be  disfranchised.  It  may  come  about 
some  day  that  the  South  will  be  exceedingly  zeal- 
ous in  defending  his  right  to  vote,  and  that  the 


82  '  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

North  will  realize,  in  ways  not  agreeable,  the  tre- 
mendous power  of  the  black  man's  ballot.  The 
time  may  come  when  the  North  will  have  sore 
need  of  patience  with  this  voter,  as  the  South  has 
had  sore  need  for  these  years.  Will  the  North  be 
Wiser  or  more  patient  ?  They  think  so.  May  they 
not  be  disappointed  in  themselves!  May  great 
grace  be  given  to  our  brethren  of  the  North  when 
the  trial  of  their  faith  comes!  They  will  need  it 
as  the  South  has  needed  it. 

This  vote  will  be  "counted;"  the  North  may 
depend  on  this.  There  may,  for  a  long  time,  or  for 
all  time,  be  local  exceptions,  as  there  may  be,  and 
as  there  have  been,  exceptions  in  New  York,  and  in 
other  great  cities ;  but,  in  the  long  run,  and  as  a 
rule,  the  black  man's  vote  will  be  counted.  On 
this  point  our  Northern  friends  may  dismiss  their 
fears.  What  they  say  ought  to  be  done  the 
Southern  whites  will  soon  say  must  be  done. 
While  I  am  writing  this  chapter  an  active  canvass 
is  going  on  in  my  own  county,  Newton,  for  county 
officers.  Our  men  are  patriotic  and  willing  to 
serve  their  country  in  office.  There  is  no  lack  of 
candidates ;  I  suppose  there  never  will  be.  All 
told,  there  must  be  more  than  twenty  men  inter- 
ested in  the  result.  Parties  are  confusedly  mixed. 
The  candidate  for  Clerk  of  the  County  Court  has 
no  opposition,  and  he  is  the  leading  Republican  in 
the  county.  One  of  the  candidates  for  sheriff  was 


The  Frccdman  made  a  Citizen.  83 

in  the  old  days  a  slave-holder,  and  he  will  secure 
the  largest  negro  vote,  although  he  is  rated  as  a 
"  stalwart  "  Democrat.*  All  these  candidates  are 
courting  the  negro  vote.  In  their  eyes,  as  to  this 
election  at  least,  "  a  negro  is  as  good  as  a  white 
man,"  if  not  somewhat  better.  Nothing  is  more 
certain  than  that  every  negro  vote  deposited  in 
Covington  and  at  other  precincts  in  this  county,  day 
after  to-morrow,  January  5,  1881,  will  be  counted. 
And  on  that  day  the  negro  vote  will  be  courted  and 
divided  and  counted  all  over  Georgia. 

North  and  South,  those  who  are  jealous  of  the 
purity  of  the  ballot-box  will,  in  the  management  of 
the  intricate  and  difficult  questions  involved  in  our 
elections,  need  all  the  sense  and  virtue  and  patience 
and  courage  that  are  in  them. 

*  He  was  elected,  the  majority  of  negroes  voting  for  him,  as  was 
anticipated. 


84  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE  TIME  ELEMENT  IN  THIS  PROBLEM. 

TO  my  purpose,  not  to  discuss  "  dead  issues " 
here  or  elsewhere,  I  adhere.  If  history  feels 
obliged  to  exhume  the  dead,  let  those  do  the  work 
who  find  pleasure  in  it.  But  to  know  what  the 
living  issues  are,  to  get  fairly  hold  of  the  problems 
of  to-day  and  of  to-morrow — for  our  children's  chil- 
dren will  not  see  the  end  of  it — it  is  needful  to  look 
back  a  little  at  events  since  the  war. 

Of  all  parties,  especially  of  two,  the  Northern  and 
the  Southern  whites,  some  things  should  be  said  in 
perfect  good  temper  and  fairness. 

First  of  all,  to  go  no  further  back,  there  has  been, 
since  April,  1865,  a  great  folly  and  a  great  heat  on 
both  sides.  The  North  has  gone  too  fast,  the 
South  too  slow.  The  conquerors  have  been  impa- 
tient, after  the  manner  of  conquerors ;  the  con- 
quered have  been  sore  under  their  yoke,  and  re- 
luctant to  "  accept  the  situation,"  after  the  manner 
of  conquered  people.  Sometimes,  when  it  would 
have  been  wiser  to  have  pulled  up  the  steep  hill 
the  heavy  loads  put  upon  us,  we  have  pulled  rather 
against  both  "  yoke  and  bows,"  hurting  our  galled 


The  Time  Element  in  this  Problem.  85 

and  bleeding  necks  all  the  more.  Power,  riches, 
"  fullness  of  bread  "  in  the  North  have  not  minis- 
tered to  forbearance  and  patience  ;  overthrow,  pov- 
erty, want,  and  the  constant  pressure  and  menace 
of  power  have  not  ministered  to  political  or  other 
resignation  in  the  South.  Moreover,  Northern  im- 
patience has  very  largely  increased  Southern  re- 
luctance. - 

Our  Northern  fellow-citizens  never  put  them- 
selves in  our  place.  I  cannot  blame  them;  they 
could  not.  It  is  a  feat  impossible  even  to  imagina- 
tion. But  they  could  at  least  have  made  the  at- 
tempt wjth  more  painstaking  care.  If  the  relations 
of  the  two  sections  to  slavery  and  the  other  ques- 
tions in  dispute  had  been  the  same,  they  should 
remember  the  differences  between  victory  and  de- 
feat. And  as  they  conquered  us  "  for  the  Union," 
the  obligations  of  magnanimous  patience  are  all  the 
greater ;  we  were  not  a  foreign  nation  ;  three  to 
one  they  conquered  their  brothers. 

One  night,  in  Atlanta,  Georgia,  toward  the  close 
of  the  war,  I  heard  an  eccentric  old  Frenchman, 
Dr.  D'Alvigney,  a  surgeon  in  the  Confederate  Ar- 
my, make  a  speech  to  a  meeting  of  citizens  at  the 
City  Hall.  It  was  brief,  but  pointed,  and  easy  to 
remember.  His  introduction  was  personal ;  a  few 
nights  before  he  had  "  veree  bad  luck."  "  The 
storm."  he  said,  "  blew  down  the  buggy  house,  and 
smashed  my  buggy,  somebody  stole  my  horse,  and 


86  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

my  cow  runned  away."  He  had  our  sympathies  at 
once.  The  old  doctor  then  proceeded  to  tell  us 
why  it  was  necessary  for  us  to  succeed  in  the  strug- 
gle. He  had  known  war  and  political  convulsion 
in  France.  This  was  his  peroration  : 

"  Fellow-citizens,  I  have  been  in  two  revolutions 
before  this.  One  time  I  was  conquer-er,  one  time 
I  was  the  conquer-ed.  I  tell  you  dere  is  one  great 
deeferance  in  dose  two  leetle  lettare." 

No  doubt  the  game  old  Frenchman  was  right ; 
we  know  the  "  d,M  the  North  knows  the  "  r."  If 
they  could  put  themselves  on  the  other  side,  only 
in  imagination,  and  only  for  a  moment,  (I  have  not 
the  heart  to  ask  it  longer,)  they  would  recall  many 
words  they  have  spoken,  and  undo  some  things 
that  they  have  done.  I  am  willing  to  apply  the 
doctrine  of  repentance  fairly;  a  philosopher  on  the 
"  conquered  "  side  should  make  allowance,  consid- 
ering the  weakness  of  our  nature,  for  even  the  pride 
and  impatience  of  conquerors.  Although  not  a 
philosopher,  I  am  doing  my  best. 

There  are  differences  in  the  circumstances  of  the 
two  parties,  not  merely  in  the  issues  of  the  strug- 
gle, but  in  their  past  relations  to  the  matters  in 
dispute.  Slavery  ceased  in  the  Northern  States 
(unless  I  should  except  the  few  hundred  negroes 
who  were  held  in  bondage  in  the  orderly  and  excel- 
lent State  of  Connecticut  till  1840— poor,  lonesome 
creatures  that  they  were)  before  any  of  the  present 


The  Time  Element  in  this  Problem.  87 

generation  were  born.  The  people  of  the  South 
had  never  known  the  negro  except  as  a  slave. 
When  Northern  slave-holders  let  go  their  grip  on 
the  negroes  there  were  so  few  that  their  influence 
was  inconsiderable.  When  Southern  slaves  were 
set  free  and  made  citizens,  many  thousands  of  white 
men  being,  for  a  time,  disfranchised,  they  were 
strong  enough  in  numbers  and  outside  help  to 
control  things. 

Our  Northern  friends  will  think  better  of  us — at 
least  less  of  themselves — in  this  matter  if  they  will 
read  their  own  history.  Most  of  them  seem  to 
have  forgotten  that  there  are  men  still  living  who 
have  been  mobbed  in  Northern  cities  for  preaching 
abolitionism.  The  cause  of  African  freedom  had 
its  martyrs  in  the  North,  also.  These  facts  they 
should  call  to  mind  in  justice  to  their  dead  and  to 
our  living.  Their  present  attitude  on  this  question 
they  did  not  reach  at  a  bound.  Let  Greeley,  Gar- 
rison, and  the  rest  tell  how  they  struggled  through 
the  life-time  of  a  generation,  and  how  slowly  the 
mass  of  the  people  rallied  about  them.  Let  them 
call  up  the  records  of  elections  a  generation  gone, 
and  count  the  votes  they  gave  to  presidential  can- 
didates, braving  the  world  and  certain  defeat  on 
this  question  of  negro  slavery.  Let  it  be  remem- 
bered, also,  that  it  was  not  simply  the  force  of 
what  they  believed  to  be  the  pure  truth  of  God  on 
this  question,  but  the  firing  on  Fort  Sumter  and 


88  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

"  the  old  flag  "  that  made  the  millions  of  the  North 
practically  "solid"  for  abolitionism  in  1861. 

Forgetting  these  things  in  their  own  history,  as 
well  as  overlooking  the  relations  of  the  South  to 
the  subject,  the  mass  of  the  Northern  people  have 
judged  us  hardly  and  harshly.  They  have  often 
been  censorious  and  impatient  because  the  South, 
which  had  owned  slaves  from  the  beginning,  and 
had  just  lost  them  after  a  bloody  and  disastrous 
war,  was  not  "  born  in  a  day !  "  Forgetting  their 
own  history  as  to  the  evolution,  through  two  or 
three  generations,  of  their  advanced  views,  they 
have  been  impatient  that  the  South  should,  not 
only  formally,  by  solemn  constitutional  enactments, 
accept  the  negro  as  a  freeman  and  a  voter,  but 
heartily  fall  in  love  with  the  new  system  that,  in 
every  Southern  State  that  had  gone  fully  into  the 
war,  put  the  government  in  the  hands  of  strangers 
and  of  the  slaves  of  yesterday,  disfranchised  thou- 
sands of  the  former  leaders  and  rulers  of  the  peo- 
ple, and  left  them  nothing  to  do  with  government 
except  the  burden  of  new  and  heavy  taxation.  All 
this  was  "  a  weariness  to  the  flesh,"  but  not  so  ex- 
asperating as  were  the  demands  of  certain  doctri- 
naires, more  zealous  than  wise,  who  strenuously 
insisted  that  the  South  should  accept  the  "  ad- 
vanced views  "  as  well  as  the  "  new  facts." 

Some  of  the  absurdest  things  in  the  world  were 
talked  by  these  zealots.     For  instance,  in  1867,  in  a 


The  Time  Element  in  this  Problem.  89 

crowded  car,  a  Federal  judge  said  to  me,  "  You  peo- 
ple must  accept  emancipation,  negro  suffrage,  social 
equality,  amalgamation,  and  all."  My  answer  was: 
"  Judge,  I  beg  of  you  to  leave  out  the  coloring  mat- 
ter." He  hardly  forgave  me  for  the  laugh  which  fol- 
lowed at  his  expense ;  some  of  his  hearers,  brooding 
over  their  troubles,  and  suspicious  of  troubles  yet  to 
come,  and  not  well  enough  acquainted  with  the 
"wild"  judge  to  appreciate  his  exquisite  absurd- 
ities, never  forgave  him  at  all.  Some  may  say, 
"  People  were  very  silly  to  care  for  such  absurd 
speeches."  Very  true ;  but  what  of  the  United 
States  judge,  backed  by  "  the  troops,"  who  could 
so  far  forget  himself  as  to  say  such  things?  Such 
absurdities  as  the  judge's  talk  amused  a  few,  dis- 
gusted many,  startled  and  alarmed  hundreds  and 
thousands  all  over  the  South.  People  could  not 
tell  how  far  the  new  ideas  might  be  pressed. 

Many  little  occurrences  in  every  community  where 
the  troops  were  quartered  added  to  the  wide-spread 
feeling  of  distrust  and  alarm.  One  of  the  least  irri- 
tating I  mention.  It  will  suggest  to  sensible  people 
some  of  the  difficulties  in  the  way  of  our  "regen- 
eration "  of  opinion  and  feeling  on  this  whole  ques- 
tion. As  if  one  should  collar  with  a  strong  hand  a 
sinner  truly  "  convicted,"  drag  him  to  the  altar,  force 
him  upon  his  knees,  beat  him  as  well  as  lecture  him 
for  his  sins,  and  yet  expect  him  to  be  "  converted  " 
within  the  hour!  One  day,  in  the  autumn  of  1865, 


90  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

I  was  superintending  the  erection,  out  of  the  debris 
of  a  torn-down  house,  of  a  little  cottage  on  Crew- 
street,  Atlanta.  Three  or  four  negro  men  were  at 
work,  one  of  them  being  a  carpenter.  While  we 
were  busy  at  work  one  morning,  a  very  young  lieu- 
tenant, commanding  a  small  squad  of  soldiers,  drew 
up  on  the  sidewalk.  The  lieutenant,  drawn  sword 
in  hand,  without  so  much  as  saying,  "  Good  morn- 
ing," demanded  of  me,  "  Are  you  carrying  on  this 
work?"  I  answered,  "Yes,  sir."  "What  do  you 
pay  these  men?"  I  confess  that  he  did  not  ap- 
pear lovely  in  my  eyes,  but  I  did  not  want  to  have 
my  work  stopped  while  being  marched  to  "  head- 
quarters." So,  with  all  the  meekness  possible  to 
me,  I  answered,  "  I  pay  the  carpenter  $3  a  day,  the 
laborers  $r  50."  His  serene  highness  "approved" 
me,  and  marched  on  to  inquire  into  other  people's 
business.  I  understood  well  enough  that  his  supe- 
riors were  intent  on  preventing  us  from  "cheating 
the  negroes."  It  did  not  seem  to  occur  to  them 
that  we  would  hardly  be  silly  enough  to  do  this, 
even  granting  that  we  were  thieves,  seeing  that 
there  was  not  enough  labor  in  Atlanta  to  meet  the 
constant  demand. 

Every  Southern  man  knows  that  my  illustration 
of  our  "  temptations  to  fret "  is  taken  from  the 
mildest  of  our  experiences.  Most  farmers  in  1865 
could  give  an  "experience." 

It  was  a  Dutchman  who  flogged  his  son  for  curs- 


The  Time  Element  in  this  Problem.  91 

ing ;  then  flogged  him  for  crying ;  then  flogged  him 
for  silence,  resenting  that  as  sullenness.  Rod  in 
hand,  he  fell  upon  his  son  the  third  time,  saying, 
"  Hans,  you  dinks  cuss;  I  flogs  you  for  dat."  This 
administrator  of  "paternal  government"  was  not 
wise — to  stop  at  wisdom.  If  "  Hans"  had  no  more 
grace  than  his  father  had  sense  it  is  much  to  be 
feared  that  he  did  curse  after  the  third  flogging. 

I  have  no  disposition  to  set  in  order  the  facts  and 
experiences  of  the  "  Reconstruction  Period."  This 
I  may  say:  in  those  days  a  degree  of  divine  grace 
was  needed  by  Southern  people  not  often  experi- 
enced in  this  sinful  world.  And  if  those  days  had 
not  been  shortened — 

Living  in  Atlanta  during  that  chaotic  time,  and 
knowing  that  I  was  seeing  with  my  eyes  and  hear- 
ing with  my  ears  a  most  unique  chapter  in  our 
national  history,  that  could  never  be  written,  I  at- 
tended almost  constantly  the  sessions  of  the  "  Con- 
ventions" and  "Legislatures"  held  in  that  city 
under  military  authority,  and  that  which  immedi- 
ately succeeded  it.  Those  assemblies  were  never 
matched  outside  the  "  conquered  territory."  Look- 
ing back  at  these  times,  in  the  calm  of  this  winter 
night — I  give  it  as  my  solemn  judgment — great 
grace  was  given  to  the  Southern  people.  I  grant 
that  they  did  not  "  live  up  to  their  privileges."  But 
candor  will  say,  if  the.  South  failed  in  patient  sub- 
mission, the  North  failed  in  wise  forbearance. 


92  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

Is  it  any  wonder  that  the  great  caldron  boiled 
fiercely,  and  that  it  sometimes  boiled  over? 

At  this  point  a  delicate  subject  needs  some  con- 
sideration. The  present  difficulties  of  our  hard 
and  tangled  race-problem  cannot  be  understood  or 
mastered  without  some  knowledge  of  the  blunders, 
follies,  and  sins  of  both  sides,  as  connected  with 
various  enterprises  set  on  foot  in  the  North,  and 
designed  to  teach  and  to  evangelize  the  negroes. 

No  doubt  the  various  missionary  and  educational 
societies  that,  soon  after  the  war  closed,  moved 
down  upon  the  South,  had,  at  bottom,  a  good  im- 
pulse and  a  good  spirit.  These  enterprises  were 
backed  by  the  brains,  money,  and  prayers  of  some 
of  the  best  people  who  ever  lived.  Of  this  I  never 
had  a  moment's  doubt.  Moreover,  many  of  the 
men  and  women  who  came  South  to  teach  and  to 
preach  were  among  the  saints  of  the  earth. 

But  all  saints  are  not  wise,  and  some  who  were 
not  saints  "  came  also  among  them."  (See  Job  i,  6.) 
It  would  have  been  a  marvel  indeed,  if,  among  so 
many,  some  impostors  had  not  thrust  themselves, 
making  a  "  gain  of  godliness,"  pushing  their  for- 
tunes, and  watching  their  chances  in  the  conquered 
provinces,  as  did  the  hangers-on  who  went  out  with 
Roman  consuls  to  see  what  spoils  they  could  win. 
A  few  wild  people,  not  generally  of  the  teaching 
and  preaching  company,  I  must  believe,  swept  away 
by  fanaticism,  told  the  negroes  that  their  labor 


The  Time  Element  in  this  Problem.  93 

had  made  the  wealth  of  the  South,  and  that  they 
were  entitled  to  divide  it.  I  myself  heard  one 
preacher  use  language  the  most  inflammatory,  be- 
fore a  crowd  of  excited  negroes,  a  few  months  after 
the  Southern  surrender,  at  a  Sunday  evening  meet- 
ing in  one  of  their  churches,  about  the  parallels  be- 
tween the  bondage  of  the  children  of  Israel  in  Egypt 
and  Southern  slavery.  I  will  never  forget  the  frenzy 
in  his  eyes,  and  the  hoarse  passion  in  his  voice, 
when  he  dwelt  upon  the  "  spoiling  of  the  Egyp- 
tians" by  the  departing  Hebrews.  I  believe  the 
man  really  thought  that  the  freed  people  were  en- 
titled to  divide,  on  a  pretty  communistic  basis,  with 
their  ex-masters.  I  am  sure  the  missionary  society 
he  represented  never  indulged  such  madness ;  but 
how  could  the  mass  of  Southern  people  know  the 
real  inspiration  of  a  movement  that,  by  some  un- 
lucky accident,  had  made  a  spokesman  and  repre- 
sentative of  this  man  ?  One  such  man  was  enough 
to  excite  prejudice,  unrelenting  and  invincible, 
against  a  dozen  men  of  sense  and  genuine  mission- 
ary zeal.  This  man  was  thoroughly  "ostracised;" 
that  is,  every  Southern  man  suspected  him  of  being 
an  incendiary,  and  no  Southern  man  would  have 
any  thing  to  do  with  him  when  it  was  possible  to 
avoid  him. 

Some  of  the  most  zealous  and  devoted  greatly 
lacked  in  common  prudence.  Some  had  a  fierce 
and  hot  zeal  that  was  near  akin  to  fanaticism.  Some 


94  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

acted  as  no  missionary  in  any  land  ever  acted  and 
succeeded  in  doing  good.  More  than  once  I  have 
heard  harangues  to  excited  negroes  that  would  have 
issued  in  fire  and  blood  but  for  the  religious  teach- 
ing and  training  they  had  received  from  Southern 
preachers  long  before  1861.  As  I  wish  to  state 
things  exactly  as  I  believe  them  to  have  been,  I 
will  add  to  this— and  but  for  their  fear  of  the  South- 
ern man's  vengeance.  Now  and  then  some  appall- 
ing outrage,  followed  by  appalling  vengeance,  would 
occur.  Justly  or  unjustly,  it  was  not  unnatural,  in 
the  excitements,  passions,  and  prejudices  of  such  a 
time,  that  outrages  by  negroes,  as  rape  and  arson, 
were,  in  many  instances,  in  popular  suspicion,  con- 
nected with  the  teaching  and  influence  of  people, 
some,  at  least,  of  whose  representatives  were  capa- 
ble of  making  such  speeches  as  have  been  men- 
tioned above.  This  may  have  been  an  unjust  sus- 
picion in  every  instance ;  it  certainly  was  in  nearly 
every  case.  But  it  was  not  unnatural  that  all  con- 
nected with  these  enterprises  were,  at  the  beginning, 
more  or  less  thrown  into  false  positions,  in  the  judg- 
ment of  Southern  people  by  the  arrant  folly  and 
madness  of  a  few ;  for  the  simple  reason  that  these 
wild  fanatics  were  very  soon  known  to  and  by  our 
people — they  were  noisy,  voluble,  self-assertive,  ob- 
trusive ;  while  those  who  really  did  what  they  were 
sent  to  do  were  quiet,  and,  confining  their  labors  to 
their  teaching  and  their  preaching,  were,  for  a  long 


The  Time  Element  in  this  Problem.  95 

time,  unknown  to  their  Southern  neighbors.  It  was 
natural  and  inevitable  that  there  should,  for  a  long 
time,  be  little  communication  between  the  "  mis- 
sionaries" and  the  Southern  whites.  And  a  few 
of  us  .who  tried  to  know  something  of  the  better 
ones  were,  ever  and  anon,  given  to  understand  that 
we  had  "  never  done  any  real  good  Christian  work  " 
in  these  States,  and  the  result  was — we  were  "  dis- 
couraged with  them." 

I  grant  that  we  of  the  South  were  over-suspicious ; 
but  this  weakness  of  our  common  humanity  we 
shared  with  the  people  of  the  North.  There  were 
differences  in  our  suspicions,  it  may  be  ;  ours  the 
suspicions  natural  to  the  defeated,  theirs  the  sus- 
picions natural  to  the  victorious.  As  to  this  mat- 
ter neither  side  has  shown  any  great  superiority 
of  temper  or  penetration.  North  and  South,  we 
may  well  afford  to  strike  a  fair  balance  with  mutual 
confessions,  apologies,  and  amendments. 

Since  January  I,  1881,  I  have  been  seriously 
asked  by  one  of  the  most  cultivated,  liberal,  and 
best  known  of  Northern  men  "  whether  it  is  really 
true  that  Southern  women,  as  a  class,  teach  their 
children  to  hate  Yankees."  He  knew  better,  but 
he  told  me  that  thousands  of  people,  all  over  the 
North,  believe  it.  Why?  Because  some  foolish 
man,  as  a  sort  of  last  shriek  of  baffled  passion,  in 
some  absurd  speech  had  said  as  much  !  I  told  him, 
"  No,  sir;  I  have  never  seen  nor  heard  of  a  Southern 


96  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

woman  doing  so  wicked  a  thing."  It  would  be  as 
wise  in  the  South  to  believe  that  the  wild  and 
rattle-brained  Federal  judge  who  declared  to  me  in 
the  presence  of  a  large  company  that  "  the  South 
must  accept  amalgamation,"  represented  the  con- 
stant thought,  fixed  purpose,  and  intense  longing 
of  every  Northern  man  and  woman. 

Among  sane  people,  capable  of  attending  to  the 
ordinary  business  affairs  of  every-day  life,  this  sort 
of  folly  should  have  an  end.  Common  sense,  as  well 
as  Christian  charity,  may  make  large  allowance  for 
the  waves  that  continued  to  roll  over  us  all,  long 
after  the  furious  tempests  of  a  four  years'  war  had 
spent  their  force.  But  evea  the  waves  sink  to  rest 
at  last.  Will  Christian  men  and  women  never  hear 
the  voice  of  their  Lord  and  Christ,  saying,  "  Peace, 
be  still?" 

I  mention  the  case  of  one  man  in  a  prominent 
and  important  position.  With  my  own  eyes  I  saw 
him  (he  was  a  teacher  employed  by  one  of  the 
missionary  associations)  soon  after  his  appearance 
in  a  Southern  city,  work  all  day — a  detachment  of 
United  States  troops  being  on  the  ground — persuad- 
ing the  recently  enfranchised  negroes  to  vote  down 
the  ticket  that  represented  nearly  all  the  intelli- 
gence and  property  of  that  city,  and  against  the 
men  who,  under  any  administration,  had  to  bear 
the  expenses  of  government,  even  the  relief  of  the 
sick  and  indigent  of  the  very  people  who  were  ar- 


The  Time  Element  in  this  Problem.  97 

rayed  against  them.  The  legal  right  of  this  zeal- 
ous man  to  do  such  things  is  not  in  question  ;  but 
his  course  was  exasperating.  To  say  the  least  of 
it,  it  did  not  commend  his  "  mission  "  to  those 
whose  influence  could  have  greatly  helped  him  to. 
fulfill  it.  Such  conduct  would,  I  suspect,  have  been 
a  trial  of  faith  and  love  in  Boston  itself.  It  is  not 
impossible  that  the  spirited  young  men  of  that  city 
would,  but  for  the  bayonets,  have  pitched  him  into 
the  bay,  after  the  tea-chests  of  1774. 

Long  ago  this  teacher  has  learned  his  business 
after  a  better  method  and  spirit.  He  would  not, 
with  his  experience,  repeat  his  unwise  and  unnec- 
essary provocations.  Long  ago  the  men  who,  at 
the  beginning,  "  ostracised  "  him,  that  is,  let  him 
alone,  have  recognized  his  true  worth,  and  have 
given  him  what  help  they  could. 

But  there  were  not  a  few  like  this  over-zealous 
man  ;  he  was  young  then,  and  mightily  persuaded 
that  he  was  right,  and  ready  to  follow  his  "  views," 
even  to  martyrdom.  He  seemed  to  long  for  it. 
Thank  Heaven !  he  missed  his  crown.  As  much 
politician  as  preacher,  as  much  partisan  as  teacher, 
and  known  to  the  people  only  in  his  most  unlovely 
and  undesirable  characters,  it  is  not  surprising  that 
he  did  not,  at  first,  command  either  the  confidence 
or  co-operation  of  those  who,  from  their  stand-point 
and  from  their  knowledge,  could  only  look  upon 
him  as  an  enemy  and  a  dangerous  man. 


98  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

Such  mistaken  people  did  incalculable  harm. 
And  as  most  of  them  were  ready  writers,  they  gave 
their  "  experience  " — omitting  ours — to  the  North- 
ern press  from  week  to  week.  For  example,  the 
teacher  whose  performances  I  have  mentioned  told 
the  world  how  he  was  "ostracised,"  but  omitted 
to  tell  how  he  had  left  his  teaching  for  the  conflicts 
of  the  hustings.  When  they  came  to  make  up 
their  Southern  letters  for  Northern  papers  they 
added  to  their  own  experience  whatever  they  could 
hear  from  others.  So  it  came  to  pass  that  the 
whole  South  was  covered  by  a  corps  of  volunteer 
"  reporters "  to  the  Northern  press,  both  secular 
and  religious.  Many  of  them  were  "  writing  up  a 
line  of  things,"  as  a  distinguished  minister  called  it 
in  an  interview  I  had  with  him  in  Cincinnati,  in  May, 
1880;  and  all  our  worst  points,  and  I  grant  that 
there  were  and  are  many,  went  into  their  letters. 
Alas !  our  better  points,  and  I  am  sure  we  have 
many,  were  left  out.  Nor  could  these  people  com- 
prehend, at  first,  the  problem  they  were  dealing 
with.  These  letters,  or  extracts  from  them,  some- 
times garbled,  found  their  way  back  to  the  South- 
ern press.  The  Southern  press  answered  with  just 
denunciation  of  those  who  misrepresented  us,  and 
very  often  with  unjust  denunciation  of  a  whole 
class.  The  Northern  press  replied  with  fresh  re- 
ports ;  the  Southern  press  rejoined  with  an  array 
of  Northern  criminal  statistics.  They  said,  "  You 


The  Time  Element  in  this  Problem.  99 

are  a  nation  of  cut-throats  ;"  we  pointed  to  the  ap- 
palling number  of  divorces  in  some  Northern  States, 
and  said,  "  You  are  a  nation  of  adulterers."  And 
thus  for  fifteen  mortal  years  we  have  gone  on 
throwing  mud  at  each  other,  to  the  wrath  of  God, 
the  disgust  of  good  men,  and  the  delight  of  the 
devil. 

I  do  not  say,  I  have  never  said,  the  Southern 
people  came  out  of  their  "  fiery  furnace  "  without 
the  "  smell  of  fire  upon  their  garments."  It  is  easy 
to  say  they  ought  to  have  seen  the  humble  preacher 
in  the  ardent  politician,  the  devoted  teacher  in  the 
fierce  partisan.  Perhaps.  But  it  was  not  in  human 
nature,  in  the  South  or  anywhere  else. 

Frankly  I  admit  that  Southern  people  as  a  class 
— I  bear  my  part  of  the  blame — did  their  cause 
much  damage  by  themselves  taking  extreme  posi- 
tions. For  example,  I  chanced  to  know  a  cultivated 

and  pious  New  England  woman,  Miss  ,  who 

came  to  a  Southern  village  to  teach  a  negro  school. 
As  I  became  well  acquainted  with  her  I  respected  and 
admired  her.  I  showed  her  what  kindness  I  could. 
She  bore  herself  admirably  in  a  most  trying  posi- 
tion. She  made  few  mistakes,  and  never  showed  a 
bad  spirit.  But  the  community  never  knew  her ; 
she  received  no  social  recognition,  except  the  com- 
monest courtesies.  She  received  no  hurt ;  she  was 
simply  let  alone.  Could  she  have  remained  longer 
she  would  have  won  confidence  and  love,  for  she 


ioo  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

deserved  both.  I  do  not  defend  the  coldness  and 
suspicion  of  these  villagers  toward  this  lovely  New 
England  lady,  but  they  should  not  be  hastily  de- 
nounced as  utterly  lost  to  "  chivalry  "  or  charity  by 
those  who  can  never  know  how  much  reason  they 
had  to  suspect  the  spirit  and  fear  the  influence  of 
many  who  came  on  such  errands. 

The  impatient,  the  censorious,  the  partisan  peo- 
ple who  got  themselves  mixed  up  with  these  mission- 
ary movements  southward— especially  the  "ready 
writers,"  who  rushed  into  print  to  tell  all  the  bad 
that  was  in  us,  and  who,  from  their  stand-point  and 
in  their  light,  could  never  see  our  better  character- 
istics— shut,  for  years,  most  doors  against  the  whole 
class. 

Let  both  sides  look  calmly  at  these  facts ;  it  is 
time  to  cool  off  and  recognize  the  truth  of  things. 
Was  it  not  inevitable,  human  nature  being  what  it 
is,  that  many  persons  should  come  South  after  the 
war,  consumed  with  zeal  to  do  good,  to  lift  up  the 
ignorant  and  degraded,  but,  by  their  constitution, 
unfitted  to  work  in  such  a  field  at  such  a  time,  and 
by  their  methods  doomed  to  failure  ?  Was  it  not 
equally  inevitable  that  what  has  been  properly 
enough  called  "  ostracism  "  should  soon  manifest 
itself — shutting  them  out  from  the  houses  of  many 
people  who  thought  them  bad  and  dangerous  ? 
Was  it  not  inevitable  that  those  who  in  nowise  de- 
served "  ostracism  "  suffered  what  some  undoubt- 


The  Tims  Element  in  this  Problem.          101 

edly  did  deserve  ?  Was  it  not  inevitable  that  there 
should  be  mistakes,  misjudgments,  and  heart- 
burnings on  both  sides  ?  When  wiser  people  came 
there  was  good  sense  and  relenting  on  both  sides, 
and  the  worst  is  now  over. 

But,  after  all,  does  history  record  an  example,  in 
any  race  or  age,  where  a  people  of  strong  charac- 
ter went  so  far  in  fifteen  years  as  the  Southern 
people— a  race  of  Anglo-Saxon  blood— have  gone 
since  1865  in  the  modification  of  opinions,  in  the 
change  of  sentiments  that  had  been,  through  gen- 
erations, firmly  fixed  in  all  their  thinking  and  feel- 
ing ?  The  change  in  the  opinions  and  sentiments 
of  the  Southern  people  since  1865  is  one  of  the 
most  wonderful  facts  of  history.  It  far  surpasses 
the  remarkable  material  recuperation  of  the  South 
after  complete  overthrow,  and  what,  at  the  time, 
seemed  to  be  remediless  disaster.  Had  the  South 
made  more  rapid  progress  in  adopting  the  ideas  of 
the  New  Era  the  world  might  well  have  doubted 
her  sincerity. 

One  of  the  overlooked  but  most  needful  lessons 
for  both  the  North  and  the  South  is  this  :  in  many 
processes  of  development  the  time-element  is  a  con- 
dition absolute.  Some  processes  require  a  great 
deal  of  time.  In  many  cases  we  are  most  impatient 
of  delay  when  delay  is  most  essential.  The  general 
analogy  of  nature  is  that  the  finest  growths  are 
slowest.  Nature  will  not  be  greatly  hurried.  Veg- 


io2  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

etable  growths  may  be  hastened  by  skillful  treat- 
ment, but  no  hot-house  devices  can  create  even 
Jonah's  gourd  in  an  hour  or  a  day.  A  lady  friend 
of  mine  killed  her  geraniums  by  forcing  them 
overmuch.  Time  is  an  essential  condition  in  the 
growth  of  most  opinions,  and  of  all  the  established 
sentiments.  There  is  a  class  of  opinions  that  may 
be  changed  without  violence  upon  the  instant  of  re- 
ceiving new  evidence.  A  man  on  a  journey  will 
change  his  route  upon  receiving  new  information. 
An  opinion  about  the  rights  and  wrongs  of  things 
that  is  "  bred  in  the  bone  "  can  hardly  be  changed 
on  the  instant  of  hearing  new  argument.  If  the 
new  view  be  the  truth,  its  seed  must  germinate  and 
grow  till  it  displaces  the  old.  Opinions  that  are 
rooted  in  race-sentiments  cannot  be  changed  to 
order,  under  any  logic  or  any  pressure  whatever. 
But  time  and  the  silent  power  of  the  "  leaven  "  of 
truth  does  wonders — sometimes  works  miracles.  If 
the  South  was  as  civilized  in  1865  as  her  warmest 
champions  and  eulogists  declared  her  to  be,  she 
could  not  reverse  her  cultured  sentiments  in  a  day ; 
if  she  was  as  ignorant  and  barbarous  as  her  harshest 
critics  affirmed  that  she  was,  she  had  at  least  to 
learn  their  wisdom  before  she  could  imitate  their 
example  or  emulate  their  graces.  In  any  case  time 
was  as  needful  as  the  light  of  knowledge,  and  far 
more  needful  than  the  pressure  of  power. 

If  any  suppose  that  I  have  written  this  chapter 


The  Time  Element  in  this  Problem.          103 

or  this  book  to  defend  any  real  fault  or  real  wrong 
with  which  the  South  is  justly  chargeable,  he  is 
mistaken.  This  is  neither  a  confession  nor  a  de- 
fense ;  I  desire  only  to  state  facts  and  truths  as 
they  appear  to  me.  And  feeling  profoundly  that 
the  people  of  the  United  States,  and  not  of  any  one 
section  only,  have  a  vast  and  difficult  race-problem 
to  solve,  I  seek,  by  such  means  as  I  can  command, 
to  help  forward,  to  the  best  of  my  ability,  a  some- 
what better  understanding  between  two  greatly  and 
sinfully  estranged  sections  of  our  common  country, 
that  they  may  be  persuaded  and  helped,  in  some 
measure,  to  co-operate  with  each  other  in  a  difficult 
and  important  task  where,  without  co-operation, 
failure  is  inevitable.  And  now,  in  closing  this  chap- 
ter, I  desire  to  record  the  opinion  that,  of  all  others, 
the  worst  misfortune  that  has  befallen  the  South,  in 
the  long  train  of  her  disasters,  is  this  painful  and  un- 
mistakable fact :  The  spirit  of  censoriousness  and  sus- 
picion, of  criticism  and  disparagement,  of  complaint 
and  denunciation,  that  has  so  long,  so  often,  and  so 
insistently  shown  itself  in  many  Northern  papers,  on 
many  Northern  platforms,  and  in  many  Northern 
pulpits,  has  greatly  hindered  the  South  from  coming 
to  a  knowledge  of  her  own  faults.  It  is  an  unspeak- 
ably sadder  thing,  and  in  every  way  more  harmful, 
that  a  man  should  be  blind  to  his  own  faults  than 
that  others  should  condemn  him  unjustly.  And 
saddT,  because  blindness  to  our  own  faults  prevents 


104  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

conviction,  hinders  repentance,  and  precludes  refor- 
mation. But  great  is  his  triumph,  who,  being  un- 
justly condemned  in  many  things,  is  yet  wise  and 
brave  enough  to  discover  his  faults  and  amend  his 
ways. 

The  question  for  a  true  man  to  ask  is,  Not 
whether  I  have  been  accused  unjustly  in  one  thing 
or  many,  but  whether  I  have  done  wrong  in  any 
thing?  Not  whether  I  have  in  one  thing  or  many 
been  treated  unjustly,  but  whether  I  have  deserved 
censure  in  any  thing  ?  Not  whether  by  human 
judgment  I  have  been  condemned  unjustly  in  one 
thing  or  many,  but  whether  I  am  condemned  by  the 
divine  judgment  in  any  thing  ?  If  we  ask  these 
questions  with  an  honest  heart  we  will  find  our  an- 
swer. An  honest  heart,  searching  itself,  will  verify 
that  word  of  our  Lord  :  "  If  therefore  thine  eye  be 
single,  thy  whole  body  shall  be  full  of  light."  And 
it  is  a  light  that  will  lead  men  out  of  all  darkness 
into  the  "  true  Light,  which  lighteth  every  man  that 
cometh  into  the  world." 


Canterbury  Green  in  1831-1834.  105 


CHAPTER  X, 

CANTERBURY   GREEN    IN    1831-1884 

AT  this  place  let  us  read  an  editorial,  taken  from 
"  Scribner's  Magazine  "  for  December,  1880. 
It  is  presumably  from  the  pen  of  Dr.  J.  G.  Hol- 
land. I  reproduce  it  here  simply  because  it  is,  at 
this  time,  useful  reading  for  both  sides.  Let  North- 
ern people  take  counsel  of  recent  history  in  one  of 
their  best  States,  and  learn  —  several  things.  Let 
Southern  people  read  this  ugly  chapter,  and  consid- 
er that  the  conduct  of  the  people  of  Canterbury 
Green  would  be  just  as  infamous  if  perpetrated  in 
a  Southern  village.  Sometimes  observant  persons 
break  off  ridiculous  or  offensive  habits  when  they 
see  them  in  other  people.  If  any  of  us  have,  at 
any  time  or  in  any  way,  been  unjust,  even  in  our 
opinions,  to  those  who  were  trying  to  do  the  ne- 
gro good — and  some  of  us,  I  for  one,  have  been  un- 
just at  times  and  to  some — let  this  Connecticut 
case  open  our  eyes.  Never  did  the  maltreatment 
of  a  negro,  or  of  a  negro  teacher,  appear  more 
hideous  to  me  than  in  reading  this  case — Connecti- 
cut "case  I  might  say,  since  the  Legislature  rallied 
to  the  help  of  the  town  meeting.  And  this  occurred 


io6  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

only  twenty-seven  years  before  the  struggle  be- 
gan that  was  to  drench  this  land  in  the  blood  of 
brothers.  The  Canterbury  trouble  involved,  alas! 
the  Congregational  Church  in  the  little  village. 
Only  twenty-seven  years!  No  doubt  there  are 
men  and  women  now  living  about  Canterbury 
Green  who  took  part  in  the  persecution  of  brave 
Miss  Crandall.  Possibly  some  of  the  boys  who  be- 
haved so  unchivalrously  toward  her  helped  right 
manfully  to  conquer  us  of  the  South  into  the  views 
they  now  entertain. 

When  our  Northern  friends  read  this  history,  and 
others  like  it,  then,  before  they  pronounce  judg- 
ment upon  their  Southern  brethren,  let  them  first 
read  what  St.  Paul  says  in  his  Epistle  to  the  Gala- 
tians :  "  Brethren,  if  a  man  be  overtaken  in  a  fault, 
ye  which  are  spiritual,  restore  such  a  one  in  the 
spirit  of  meekness;  considering  thyself,  lest  thou 
also  be  tempted. " 

May  this  Canterbury  Green  history  help  North- 
ern critics  of  the  South  to  be  more  moderate  and 
charitable.  May  it  also  lead  both  sides  to  repent- 
ance. 

The  December  "  Scribner,"  in  "  Topics  of  the 
Time,"  says : 

"  We  have  a  lesson  at  hand  which  may  perhaps 
give  our  Northern  people  a  charitable  view  of  the 
Southern  sentiment,  and  inspire  them  with  hope  of 
a  great  and  radical  change.  We  draw  this  from  a 


Canterbury  Green  in  1831-1834.  107 

work  recently  issued  by  the  author,  Miss  Ellen  D. 
Larned,  which  seems  to  be  a  careful,  candid,  and 
competent  history  of  Windham  County,  Connecti- 
cut. It  appears  that,  in  1831,  Miss  Prudence  Cran- 
dall,  a  spirited,  well  known,  and  popular  resident  of 
the  county,  started  a  school  for  girls  at  Canterbury 
Green.  The  school  was  popular  and  was  attended 
not  only  by  girls  from  the  best  families  in  the  imme- 
diate region,  but  by  others  from  other  counties  and 
other  States.  Among  these  pupils  she  received  a 
colored  girl.  She  was  at  once  told  by  the  parents 
of  the  white  children  that  the  colored  girl  must  be 
dismissed,  or  that  their  girls  would  be  withdrawn 
from  her  establishment.  Miss  Crandall  must  have 
been  a  delightfully  plucky  woman,  for  she  defied 
her  patrons,  sent  all  their  children  back  to  them, 
and  advertised  her  school  as  a  boarding-school  for 
'  young  ladies  and  little  misses  of  color. '  Of 
course  the  people  felt  themselves  to  be  insulted, 
and  they  organized  resistance.  They  appointed  a 
committee  of  gentlemen  to  hold  an  interview  with 
Miss  Crandall  and  to  remonstrate  with  her.  But 
that  sturdy  person  justified  her  course  and  stood  by 
her  scheme,  as  well  she  might.  It  was  her  business 
and  it  was  none  of  theirs.  The  excitement  in  the 
town  was  without  bounds.  A  town-meeting  was 
hastily  summoned  '  to  devise  and  adopt  such  meas- 
ures as  would  effectually  avert  the  nuisance,  or  speed- 
ily abate  it,  if  it  should  be  brought  into  the  village/ 


io8  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

"  In  1833  Miss  Crandall  opened  her  school,  against 
the  protest  of  an  indignant  populace,  who,  after  the 
usual  habit  of  a  Yankee  town,  called  and  held  an- 
other town-meeting,  at  which  it  was  resolved : 
'  That  the  establishment  or  rendezvous  falsely  de- 
nominated a  school,  was  designed  by  its  projectors 
as  the  theater  ...  to  promulgate  their  disgusting 
doctrines  of  amalgamation  and  their  pernicious  sen- 
timents of  subverting  the  Union.  These  pupils 
were  to  have  been  congregated  here  from  all  quar- 
ters, under  the  false  pretense  of  educating  them, 
but  really  to  scatter  fire-brands,  arrows,  and  death 
among  brethren  of  our  own  blood.' 

"  Let  us  remember  that  all  this  ridiculous  disturb- 
ance was  made  about  a  dozen  little  darky  girls,  in- 
capable of  any  seditious  design,  and  impotent  to  do 
any  sort  of  mischief.  Against  one  of  these  little 
girls  the  people  leveled  an  old  vagrant  law,  requir- 
ing her  to  return  to  her  home  in  Providence,  or  give 
security  for  her  maintenance,  on  penalty  of  being 
'  whipped  on  the  naked  body.'  At  this  time,  as  the 
author  says, — 

"  Canterbury  did  its  best  to  make  scholars  and 
teachers  uncomfortable.  Non-intercourse  and  em- 
bargo acts  were  put  in  successful  operation.  Deal- 
ers in  all  sorts  of  wares  and  produce  agreed  to  sell 
nothing  to  Miss  Crandall,  the  stage-driver  declined 
to  carry  her  pupils,  and  neighbors  refused  a  pail  of 
fresh  water,  even  though  they  knew  that  their  own 


Canterbury  Green  in  1831-1834.  109 

sons  had  filled  her  well  with  stable  refuse.  Boys 
and  rowdies  were  allowed  unchecked — if  not  openly 
encouraged — to  exercise  their  utmost  ingenuity  in 
mischievous  annoyance,  throwing  real  stones  and 
rotten  eggs  at  the  windows,  and  following  the  school 
with  hoots  and  horns  if  it  ventured  to  appear  in  the 
street. 

"  Miss  Crandall's  Quaker  father  was  threatened 
with  mob  violence,  and  was  so  terrified  that  he 
begged  his  daughter  to  yield  to  the  demands  of 
popular  sentiment :  but  she  was  braver  than  he,  and 
stood  by  herself  and  her  school.  Then  Canterbury 
appealed  to  the  Legislature,  and  did  not  appeal  in 
vain.  A  statute,  designed  to  meet  the  case,  was 
enacted,  which  the  inhabitants  received  with  peal- 
ing bells  and  booming  cannon,  and  '  every  demon- 
stration of  popular  delight  and  triumph.'  This  law 
was  brought  to  bear  upon  Miss  Crandall's  father 
and  mother,  in  the  following  choice  note  from  two 
cf  their  fellow-citizens : 

"  '  MR.  CRANDALL  :  If  you  go  to  your  daughter's, 
you  are  to  be  fined  $100  for  the  first  offense,  $200 
for  the  second,  and  double  it  every  time.  Mrs. 
Crandall,  if  you  go  there  you  will  be  fined,  and 
your  daughter  Almira  will  be  fined,  and  Mr.  May, 
and  those  gentlemen  from  Providence,  [Messrs. 
George  and  Henry  Benson,]  if  they  come  here,  will 
be  fined  at  the  same  rate.  And  your  daughter, 
the  one  that  has  established  the  school  for  colored 


no  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

females)  will  be  taken  up  the  same  way  as  for  steal- 
ing a  horse,  or  for  burglary.  Her  property  will  not 
be  taken,  but  she  will  be  put  in  jail,  not  having  the 
liberty  of  the  yard.  There  is  no  mercy  to  be  shown 
about  it.1 

"  Soon  afterward,  Miss  Crandall  was  arrested  and 
taken  to  jail.  Her  trial  resulted  in  her  release,  but 
her  establishment  was  persecuted  by  every  ingenuity 
of  cruel  insult.  She  and  her  school  were  shut  out 
from  attendance  at  the  Congregational  Church,  and 
religious  services  held  in  her  own  house  were  inter- 
rupted by  volleys  of  rotten  eggs  and  other  missiles. 
The  house  was  then  set  on  fire.  The  fire  was  extin- 
guished, and  in  1834,  on  September  9,  just  as  the 
family  was  going  to  bed,  a  body  of  men  surrounded 
the  house  silently,  and  then,  with  iron  bars,  simulta- 
neously beat  in  the  windows.  This,  of  course,  was 
too  much  for  the  poor  woman  and  girls.  Miss 
Crandall  herself  quailed  before  this  manifestation 
of  ruffianly  hatred,  and  the  brave  woman  broke  up 
her  school  and  sent  her  pupils  home.  Then  the 
people  held  another  town-meeting,  and  passed 
resolutions  justifying  themselves  and  praising  the 
Legislature  for  passing  the  law  for  which  they  had 
asked. 

"  All  this  abominable  outrage  was  perpetrated  in 
the  sober  State  of  Connecticut,  within  the  easy 
memory  of  the  writer  of  this  article.  It  reads  like 
a  romance  from  the  Dark  Ages  ;  yet  these  people  of 


Canterbury  Green  in  1831-1834.  in 

Canterbury  were  good  people,  who  were  so  much  in 
earnest  in  suppressing  what  they  believed  to  be  a 
great  wrong,  that  they  were  willing  to  be  cruel 
toward  one  of  the  best  and  bravest  women  in  their 
State,  and  to  resort  to  mob  violence,  to  rid  them- 
selves of  an  institution  whose  only  office  was  to 
elevate  the  poor  black  children  who  had  little  chance 
of  elevation  elsewhere.  Now  this  outrage  seems 
just  as  impossible  to  the  people  of  Canterbury  to- 
day as  it  does  to  us.  The  new  generation  has 
grown  clean  away  from  it,  and  grown  away  from 
it  so  far  that  a  school  of  little  colored  girls  would, 
we  doubt  not,  be  welcomed  there  now  as  a  praise- 
worthy and  very  interesting  institution.  The  Con- 
necticut girls  who  go  South  to  teach  in  colored 
schools  should  remember  or  recall  the  time  when 
they  would  not  have  been  tolerated  in  their  work 
in  their  own  State,  and  be  patient  with  the  social 
proscription  that  meets  them  to-day.  When  the 
white  man  learns  that  a  '  solid  South,'  made  solid 
by  shutting  the  negro  from  his  vote,  makes  always  a 
solid  North,  and  that  the  solid  North  always  means 
defeat,  it  will  cease  to  be  solid,  and  then  the  negro's 
vote  will  be  wanted  by  two  parties,  and  his  wrong 
will  be  righted.  In  view  of  the  foregoing  sketch  of 
Northern  history,  we  can  at  least  be  charitable  to- 
ward the  South,  and  abundantly  hopeful  concerning 
the  future." 


ii2  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

A  NATIONAL  PROBLEM. 

SINCE  1865  we,  the  people  of  the  United  States, 
have  been,  for  the  most  part,  living  "  from 
hand  to  mouth,"  in  our  dealing  with  our  national 
problem  of  the  Americanized  negro. 

Candor  requires  a  distinction  here.  Some  South- 
ern statesmen  and  many  Northern  philanthropists 
have  really  sought  to  lay  down,  broadly  and  deeply, 
the  foundations  of  a  permanent  work.  This  is  seen 
of  all  men,  who  can  see  at  all,  in  the  vast  sums  of 
money — to  say  nothing  of  personal  service — that 
have  been  given  for  the  education  of  the  negroes  in 
the  South ;  also,  for  sustaining  the  Gospel  among 
them.  Most  of  this  money,  I  am  sure,  was  given 
"  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus."  Many  of  these 
gifts  meant  sacrifice  to  the  giver.  The  man  who 
would  sneer  at  these  gifts  for  the  uplifting  of  igno- 
rant negroes  would  have  sneered  with  Judas  when 
grateful  and  loving  Mary  broke  her  alabaster  box 
of  precious  ointment  and  poured  it  upon  the  head 
of  her  Lord. 

Most  of  the  work  that  has  been  done  is  good — it 
will  last.  Some  "  wood,  hay,  and  stubble"  has  been 


A  National  Problem.  113 

laid  upon  a  good  foundation.  That  some  of  the 
foundation-work  has  been  laid  in  bad  mortar  and 
on  spongy  soil  is  not  surprising  to  those  who  know 
that  zeal  does  not  always  insure  wisdom,  or  the 
purest  religious  experience  security  against  mis- 
takes of  judgment.  Good  people,  undertaking  a 
difficult  work,  never  had  more  opportunities  for 
making  mistakes.  Some  came  with  exaggerated 
ideas  both  of  the  degradation  of  the  negro  and  of 
his  natural  capacity  and  disposition  ;  others  had 
exaggerated  ideas  of  the  depravity  of  Southern 
whites,  looking  at  them  through  lenses,  like  the 
horrid  things  our  professor  showed  us  when  we 
were  studying  "optics"  long  ago — distorting  every 
face  into  bestial  or  demoniac  shapes.  Some,  I  am 
sorry  to  say,  came  with  exaggerated  ideas  of  their 
own  personal  excellence,  and,  very  naturally,  "  fell 
from  grace."  All  of  them  entered  a  work  for  which 
they  were  illy  prepared. 

I  must  now  mention  what  was  not  creditable  to 
either  party.  Few  of  those  who  came  wanted  ad- 
vice from  those  who  wrere  best  able  to  give  it ;  and 
few  of  those  who  could  advise  were  willing  to  give 
the  benefit  of  their  wisdom.  Mutual  suspicion, 
pride,  and  folly  kept  those  apart  who  should  have 
worked  together.  The  secret  thoughts  of  each 
might  be  expressed  after  this  fashion,  and,  in  most 
cases,  with  not  much  over-statement :  A  Northern 

teacher,  or  preacher,  meets  a  Southern  man  of  fairly 

8 


ii4  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

representative  character.  The  Northern  man  says 
in  his  heart :  "  You  are  a  miserable  traitor ;  a  red- 
handed  rebel ;  possibly  you  are  a  Ku-Klux ;  you 
hate  negroes;  you  despise  me;  the 'old  flag'  makes 
you  furious ;  you  are  waiting  your  chance  to  try 
the  fight  over ;  I  will  tell  on  you,  and  help  to  keep 
you  down."  The  Southern  man  says  in  his  heart : 
"  You  are  a  mean  Yankee ;  a  detestable  carpet- 
bagger ;  a  lover  of  negroes,  (he  was  not  over-careful 
of  orthography  or  of  orthoepy;)  you  are  a  '  Union 
Leaguer ; '  you  are  an  incendiary ;  you  mean  to 
teach  and  to  enforce ' social  equality;'  I  must  watch 
you,  and  keep  you  from  putting  me  down  and  the 
bottom-rail  on  top."  In  most  cases  never  were  men 
more  mistaken  in  each  other,  and  partly  because 
each  had  just  enough  truth  in  his  notion  of  the 
other  to  make  his  misconceptions  fatal.  If  angels 
ever  weep  and  devils  ever  laugh,  these  mistaken 
and  suspicious  men  furnished  rich  and  rare  occa- 
sion. Meanwhile  the  poor  negro  suffered  from  both 
sides,  ground  to  powder  by  these  two  millstones, 
the  upper  and  the  nether,  wearing  each  other  out 
with  useless  friction  and  all-consuming  heat. 

In  heaven's  name  let  us  now  consider  whether  we 
have  not  had  quite  enough  of  this  wretched  farce 
which  has  bordered  close  upon  a  mournful  tragedy  ! 

Both  sides  made  cruel  mistakes,  meantime  con- 
fusing, perplexing,  and  frightening  the  negro ;  also 
spoiling  him,  for  the  noise  made  over  him  gave  him 


A  National  Problem.  115 

an  altogether  overweening  idea  of  his  own  impor- 
tance— a  state  of  mind  highly  unfavorable  to  his 
true  progress  in  learning  and  in  experience  very 
needful  for  him. 

For  a  time  the  negro  was  looking,  with  the  won- 
der and  simplicity  of  a  child  watching  for  Santa 
Claus  to  drop  down  the  chimney  on  Christmas 
night,  for  "  forty  acres  and  a  mule."  Hundreds 
of  ignorant  white  people  expected  that  they, 
under  some  form  of  law,  if  not  by  compulsion 
without  form,  would  be  called  on  to  furnish  both 
the  mule  and  the  land.  When  people  had  been 
catechised  by  a  "lieutenant  with  his  squad  "  of  sol- 
diers, they  did  not  know  what  to  expect  next. 
(But  I  protest  I  never  expected  to  be  called  on  for 
a  mule;  indeed,  I  had  none.)  And  lieutenants, 
teachers,  preachers,  explorers,  "developers,"  Freed- 
men's-Bureau  men,  Freedmen's-Aid-Society  men, 
shrewd  men  "  looking  about,"  good  women  "  look- 
ing around" — all,  in  the  common  judgment,  were 
carpet-baggers,  and  all  suspected.  And,  of  a  truth, 
some  of  them,  "  clothed  in  a  little  brief  authority," 
did  "  cut  fantastic  tricks  before  high  heaven,"  that 
made  even  wise  men  mad,  whether  the  "  angels 
wept "  or  not. 

In  a  thousand  ways  both  parties  have  made  cruel 
mistakes — mistakes  that  sometimes  issued  in  crimes 
— due  in  part  to  ignorance ;  in  part  to  suspicion ; 
in  part  to  pride ;  in  part  to  the  exultations  of  tri- 


ii6  OUR  BROTHER  "IN  BLACK. 

umph ;  in  part  to  the  bitterness  of  defeat,  and 
always  to  that  truth-hiding  prejudice  that  is  born 
of  these  ill-favored  tempers. 

The  Southern  people,  as  a  class,  have  never  since 
the  war  set  themselves  fairly  and  earnestly  to  the 
solution  of  this  race-involving  problem.  Some  of 
us  have  not,  it  seems,  as  yet  found  out  that  we 
have  a  problem  to  solve  at  all.  We  have,  indeed, 
tried  many  things,  some  of  them  foolish,  none  of 
them  effective.  A  few  desperate  and  lawless  men, 
to  the  dismay  and  horror  of  the  mass  of  the  South- 
ern people,  have  sometimes  tried  wicked  measures, 
as,  for  instance,  the  deviltry  of  Ku-Kluxism.  With 
few  exceptions  our  best  efforts  have  been  tempo- 
rary expedients.  Our  work  has  been  tentative ;  I 
might  say  palliative,  much  like  the  work  of  some 
"  Relief  Committees  "  that  issue  rations  to  the  hun- 
gry, but  in  such  a  blundering  way  as  to  increase 
pauperism. 

I  neither  accuse  nor  defend;  I  am  trying  to  state 
facts.  Yet,  without  entering  on  a-  plea  of  defense, 
it  may  be  asked,  Whether,  for  at  least  a  decade  after 
the  war,  "the  state  of  things"  existing  in  the  South 
made  it  possible  for  Southern  people,  who  truly 
desired  to  know  and  to  do  right,  to  enter  upon  any 
broad  and  permanent  work  for  the  solution  of  our 
difficult  problem  ?  The  plain  truth  is,  we  were 
struggling  for  existence,  and  though,  with  thou- 
sands of  us,  the  struggle  is  still  at  its  intensest  point, 


A  National  Problem.  \  \  7 

the  South  has  wrought  wonders.  No  people  of  our 
times  have  been  called  on  to  make  just  such  an 
experiment  as  was  given  to  us.  And  we  have 
wrought  so  well,  notwithstanding  an  undeserved 
reputation  for  indolence,  that  no  prostrated  people 
of  coming  times  can  despair  when  they  consider 
the  material  recuperation  of  our  section  since  the 
utter  disorganization  and  collapse  that  followed 
Appomattox. 

No  political  party,  as  such,  has  dealt  fairly  with 
this  question  of  the  negro's  citizenship.  They 
have  considered  him  almost  exclusively  as  a  voter, 
one  party  seeking  to  control  his  vote,  the  other 
seeking  to  avoid  being  controlled  by  it.  Neither 
party  has  considered  him  in  the  fullness  of  his  citi- 
zenship. The  leaders  and  whippers-in  have  been 
far  more  anxious  to  count  his  vote  than  to  prepare 
him  for  it. 

The  negro's  ballot  is,  indeed,  important  in  every 
view  of  the  case,  but  in  our  dealings  with  him  his 
importance  as  a  voter  has  been  greatly  exaggerated 
by  both  parties,  and  much  to  his  damage  as  a  man 
and  a  citizen  in  the  broader  sense.  In  no  rational 
view  of  the  case  is  this  a  question  that  one  political 
party  or  section  of  the  country  can  solve  alone. 
If  both  parties  and  both  sections  working  together 
can  solve  it,  they  will  do  well.  It  would  be  a  mis- 
fortune to  the  country  if  either  one  of  the  parties 
could  solve  it  independently  of  the  other  party. 


ii8  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

This  is  not  a  party  Or  sectional  problem,  it  is  the 
task  of  the  Nation. 

It  is  time  for  all  concerned,  for  the  negroes  and 
the  whites,  to  know  that  Northern  people  alone, 
that  Southern  people  alone  cannot  manage  satis- 
factorily this  question  of  six  millions  of  free  ne- 
groes, a  full  million  of  them  voters,  with  millions 
more  to  come.  Northern  people  will  yet  learn, 
what  many  of  them  do  not  know  at  this  time,  that 
this  problem  cannot  be  rightly  and  happily  solved 
without  the  help,  the  cordial  and  vigorous  co-op- 
eration, of  the  Southern  whites.  Neither  of  the 
three  parties  —  the  Northerners,  the  Southerners, 
nor  the  negroes — have  clearly  understood  this  abso- 
lute necessity  of  co-operation,  though  I  do  believe 
the  negroes  have  come  nearest  to  the  truth. 

It  is  essential,  if  permanent  good  is  to  be  done, 
to  understand  that  this  national  race  problem  re- 
quires the  intelligent  and  hearty  co-operation  of 
three  classes  —  Northern  white  people,  Southern 
white  people,  and  the  negroes  themselves.  If  all 
the  Northern  people  were  doing  their  best,  the 
Southern  people  standing  aloof  in  sullen  silence, 
much  might  be  done,  but  the  work  would  be 
marred  and  hindered  in  all  directions ;  so  if  the 
whole  South  should  do  its  best,  with  the  North 
watching  with  only  interest  enough  to  be  censori- 
ous and  critical.  Neither  nor  both  can  do  much  if 
the  negroes  fail  to  do  their  own  part. 


A  National  Problem.  119 

Time  does  wonders  ;  we  have  nearly  come  to  the 
place  where  both  sides,  the  North  and  the  South, 
can  look  on  this  negro  question  in  a  dry  light. 
The  lava  has  cooled  that  so  long  rushed  from  both 
craters.  At  all  events,  there  are  enough  men  and 
women  on  both  sides  who  can  be  reasonable  to 
begin  to  clear  the  ground  for  mutual  understand- 
ing. As  to  the  "  utter  irreconcilables "  on  both 
sides,  (for  be  it  remembered  that  "  Bourbonism  "  is 
not  exclusively  a  Southern  product,)  the  wiser  and 
better  people  must  do  God's  work  of  to-day  and 
to-morrow  without  their  help,  and,  if  it  come  to 
that,  in  spite  of  their  opposition.  The  majority 
hardly  ever  gets  right  on  any  advanced  issue  till 
after  the  fight  is  won ;  the  minority  has  always  led 
the  world's  progress,  carrying  meanwhile  much 
dead  weight. 

"  Stalwarts  "  we  need,  but  stalwarts  for  country, 
not  for  party.  Neither  party  is  worth  the  country ; 
possibly  both  put  together  are  not  absolutely  essen- 
tial to  its  salvation.  The  platforms  upon  which 
presidential  campaigns  have  been  conducted  for 
twelve  years  past  read  strangely  alike,  considering 
the  noise  and  smoke  of  battle  that  asseverated 
their  infinite  and  eternal  difference.  Really  there 
is  not  enough  in  the  fight  of  parties  to  justify  the 
expenditure  of  the  whole  force  of  a  "  stalwart "  na- 
ture in  the  interests  of  a  mere  party  triumph.  It  is 
a  good  time,  surely,  for  earnest  and  yet  reasonable 


120  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

people  to  agree  as  to  what  needs  to  be  done  for 
the  whole  country,  and  to  work  together  to  accom- 
plish it. 

The  negroes,  too,  are  in  better  temper  to  do 
their  part.  Several  misconceptions  as  to  what 
freedom  meant  they  have  outgrown.  For  one 
thing,  they  have  learned,  or  they  are  fast  learning, 
that  they,  as  well  as  white  men,  are  still  under  the 
blessed  law  of  labor ;  "  blessed,"  although  they 
know  it  not.  They  no  longer  look  to  the  govern- 
ment for  "  rations."  The  dream  of  "  forty  acres 
and  a  mule"  has  faded  from  their  imagination.* 

*  Just  as  I  had  written  the  first  sentence  of  this  paragraph  a 
neighbor,  the  Rev.  Nicholas  Graves,  a  colored  local  preacher  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  dropped  into  my  office.  As  he  had 
volunteered  to  bring  my  morning's  mail  before  breakfast,  and  now 
appeared,  though  unasked,  with  an  armful  of  wood,  and  proceeded 
to  make  so  hot  a  fire  that  I  could  hardly  stay  in  the  room,  I  knew 
something  was  to  be  "  brought  forward."  Nick,  when  freedom 
came,  retained  the  surname  of  his  old  master,  a  wealthy  planter  in 
our  county.  There  was  much  changing  of  names  soon  after  eman- 
cipation, the  negroes  generally  taking  the  most  aristocratic  name 
they  had  ever  been  connected  with.  Nick  stuck  to  Graves,  as  he 
could  not  well  improve  upon  it. 

I  generally  give  him  "  rope,"  and  let  him  bring  up  his  case  in  his 
own  way,  for  his  mental  methods  are  an  amusing  study.  But  I  was 
too  busy  to  wait  this  morning.  So  I  laid  down  my  pen  and  opened 
the  way  : 

•'  Well,  Nick,  what  is  it  ?" 

To  my  amusement,  he  proceeded  to  tell  me  a  long  story  about  a 
"  mule  trade  "  he  had  been  trying  to  make.  He  wound  up  by  tell- 
ing me  that  the  mule  trade  was  "off,"  but  that  "a  tolable  chunk  of  a 
hoss  was  offered  him  for  $40."  Whereupon  I  read  him  the  sen- 
tence I  had  written,  and  gave  him  the  others  in  the  paragraph  off- 


A  National  Problem.  12 1 

One  other  thing  they  were  slow  to  learn,  but  they 
have  nearly  learned  it— that  neither  party  cares  as 
much  for  them  as  it  cares  for  their  votes.  And 
this  lesson,  when  fully  learned,  will  tone  them  up 
somewhat. 

Patronage  has  done  little  for  them  ;  there  are  now 
and  have  ever  been  enough  hungry  camp-followers 
of  white  blood  to  appropriate  even  the  "  crumbs 
that  fall  from  the  master's  table/'  It  is  hard  to 
keep  up  their  interest  in  politics,  seeing  that  neither 
party,  North  nor  South,  has  office  for  them.  Even 
the  Indian  lost  interest  in  the  hunt  when  his  white 
partner  always  took  the  "  turkey  "  and  left  him  the 
"  buzzard."  But,  badinage  aside,  it  is  a  fact  most 
important  and  encouraging  to  all  who  wish  the 
negro  well,  that  the  comparative  subsidence  of  his 

hand,  and  then  looked  at  him.  There  was  a  display  of  ivory  only 
possible  to  his  race. 

"Now,  Nick,  tell  me,  did  any  of  them  ever  tell  your  people 
that  ?  " 

"Yes,  sah;  Mr.  H.,  who  teeched  here  jest  after  de  wah,  told  us 
dat  ;  I  heered  him  myself." 

"  Nick,  what  did  he  do  it  for  ?  " 

"  Dunno,  sah,  but  he  said  it  shore.  He  said  de  gubment  would 
gib  us  forty  acres  and  a  mule  apiece,  and  perwisions  to  last  a 
year." 

"  Nick,  you  all  voted  on  his  side,  did  you?" 

I  did  not  push  the  subject.  Cruikshanks  should  have  seen  the 
droll  look  that  came  into  his  eyes  and  spread  over  his  face.  But  he 
went  away  happy,  having  received  the  little  favor  "bout  de  hoss 
trade  "  his  soul  longed  for.  I  have  often  favored  him  ;  he  has  never 
"  gone  back  "  on  me. 


122  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

fierce  political  fever  promises  the  best  results  for  his 
true  progress  in  all  good  things.  The  negro  can 
now  co-operate  with  his  friendly  helpers,  whether 
of  the  North  or  of  the  South,  as  he  could  not  have 
done  even  four  years  ago. 

One  other  thought  as  to  this  race  problem,  I 
wish  to  stress  at  this  point.  While  its  right  solution 
is  vastly  important  to  every  part  of  the  Republic,  it 
is  absolutely  vital  to  us  of  the  South.  Its  right 
solution  concerns  the  Southern  ^vhite  man  only  less 
than  it  concerns  the  negro  Jjlmself.  Possibly  I 

^       ^ 

ought  not  to  say  "  only  less,"  for  the  fortunes  of 
these  two  races  in  the  South  are  inextricably  mixed. 
They  cannot  get  away  from  each  other.  What 
might  have  been  if  history  had  been  different ;  what 
we  would  choose  if  things  were  not  as  they  are — 
these  speculations  are  idle.  Instead  of  dreaming 
about  the  civilization  we  would  build  up  with  mate- 
rials that  we  have  not,  it  is  the  part  of  men  of  sense 
to  do  the  best  they  can  with  what  they  have  in 
hand.  If  we  of  the  South  cannot  get  on  with  the 
negro ;  if  the  negro  cannot  get  on  with  us ;  then  we 
two  peoples  cannot  get  on  at  all.  For  we  are  here, 
both  of  us,  and  here  to  stay.  But  get  on  we  must, 
somehow  and  at  some  speed.  Much  we  have  done  ; 
more  we  can  and  will  do.  When  we  consider  how 
Providence  has  blessed  our  efforts  we  see  ten  thou 
sand  reasons  for  hopefulness.  Croaking  is  ingrati- 
tude, and  it  is  treason.  If  our  progress,  however 


A  National  Prob  km.  123 

slow,  is  only  {n  the  right  direction,  all  will  be  well 
by  and  by.  If  we  cannot  go  fast,  we  must  go  slow, 
but  we  must  go»* 

We  white  people  of  the  South  have  more  at  stake 
in  this  race-problem  than  other  white  men  and 
women  of  any  nation  can  have,  And  it  is  now  full 
time  that  we  should  do  our  best  thinking,  working, 
and  praying  over  this  problem  of  a  free  negro  race 
in  our  midst— a  race  that  has  been,  is  now,  and  for- 
ever will  be,  an  integral  part  of  our  industrial, 
social,  and  political  system;  If,  for  any  reasons 
whatsoever,  we  of  the  South  refuse  to  do,  or  fail  to 
do,  our  part  of  this  work,  there  will  be  loss  all  round 
—loss  that  can  never  be  compressed  into  of  ex- 
pressed by  statistical  tables.  The  Southern  whites 
lose,  the  negro  loses,  the  world  loses.  But  I  am 
deeply  impressed  that  there  is  a  differencei  The 
world  can  get  on  without  the  South  much  better 
than  the  South  can  get  on  without  the  world.  This 

*  The  late  venerable  and  eloquent  Dr.  Lovick  Pierce,  who  never 
missed  a  chance,  during  a  ministry  of  seventy-five  years,  to  do  the 
negroes  good,  was  preaching  once  on  Christian  Progress  at  a  camp- 
meeting.  It  was  his  manner  to  make  astonishing  climaxes  now  and 
then.  On  this  occasion  he  laid  down  the  law  of  life  and  death  in 
Christian  experience :  "  Brethren,  you  must  grow  or  die.  Progress 
you  must  make.  If  you  can  fly,  fly  ;  if  you  can't  fly,  run ;  if  you 
can't  run,  walk  ;  if  you  can't  walk,  crawl."  His  voice  was  rising  to 
its  full  trumpet  tones,  and  his  eye  flashing  as  few  eyes  ever  flashed. 
His  right  hand  was  still  high  advanced.  The  congregation  trembled 
for  him.  What  could  he  say  more  ?  But  he  was  the  master  of  such 
a  crisis.  He  wound  up  the  sentence  with  an  explosion  like  thunder  : 
"  If  you  can't  crawl — WORM  IT  ALONG  !" 


124  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

may  not  be  a  brilliant  discovery ;  but  a  goodly 
number  have  not  yet  made  it. 

But  there  is  a  lesson  the  Northern  people  have 
never  fully  mastered,  and  it  is  very  important  to  all 
parties  that  they  should  learn  it.  If  the  best  results 
are  to  follow  the  efforts  many  Northern  people  are 
making  to  elevate  the  negro,  they  must  realize,  as 
they  never  have  done,  the  absolute  necessity  of 
Southern  co-operation.  Would  God  this  might  be 
learned  by  all  sides  to  this  question  before  it  is  too 
late!  Millions  of  money  poured  forth,  and  thou- 
sands of  precious  lives  exhausted  upon  this  problem, 
will  not  avail  for  its  full  and  right  solution  without 
Southern  co-operation.  Many  of  the  North  have 
had  glimpses  of  this  truth,  but  they  seem  not  to 
understand  it  fully;  else,  surely  they  would  have 
tried  harder  and  more  wisely  to  secure  the  help  they 
need,  and  that  we  only  can  give.  Many  in  the 
South  have  had  glimpses  also  ;  but  few  of  us,  if  any, 
have  had  the  clear  vision  of  our  duty  and  our  oppor- 
tunity; else,  surely,  we  would  have  been  more 
ready  to  help  in  every  "  good  word  and  work." 
Heaven  pardon  our  blindness  !  but  there  has  been  so 
much  smoke  of  powder  and  other  things  that  we 
could  not  always  see  our  way. 

Can  any  thing  in  the  world  be  plainer?  A  candy 
shop  cannot  succeed  in  a  hostile  community.  Much 
less  can  a  school  or  a  Church. 

What  must  become  of  all  the  noble  schemes  of 


A  National  Problem.  125 

Northern  benevolence  in  the  negroes'  behalf,  if  the 
stronger  and  more  numerous  race,  in  the  very  midst 
of  which  he  lives,  and  moves,  and  has  his  being, 
whose  tenant  he  is,  whose  influence  he  can  no  more 
escape  than  he  can  escape  the  atmosphere  he 
breathes,  if  this  race  is  either  hostile  or  indifferent 
to  the  efforts  that  are  being  made  to  do  him  good 
and  to  lift  him  up?  Much  the  Northern  people 
have  done  with  little  help  from  us ;  much  they  can 
and  will  do  without  our  help ;  but  they  can  and 
will  do  unspeakably  more  with  it.  What  waste  of 
energy,  what  spoiling  of  noble  schemes  of  useful- 
ness, what  hinderance  to  our  own  progress  as  well  as 
the  negroes',  what  marring  of  what  ought  to  be  a 
divinely  beautiful  and  beneficent  work,  must  result 
from  foolish  and  sinful  antagonism  in  feeling  and 
purpose  and  method  between  the  white  man  from 
the  North  and  the  white  man  in  the  South ! 

I  do  not  believe  that  there  is  any  thing  insuper- 
able between  these  two  men.  They  are  not  fools, 
though  they  exhibit  folly  upon  occasion ;  they  are 
not  visionary,  though  they  are  sometimes  impractica- 
ble ;  they  are  not  relentless,  though  they  are  some- 
times hot  of  temper ;  they  are  not  blind,  though 
they  are  sometimes  slow  to  learn  ;  they  will  yet  be 
fraternal,  though  they  have  been  hard  and  stubborn 
fighters  through  many  years  and  on  many  fields. 
These  men  will  yet  understand  one  another.  Per- 
haps not  to-morrow.  Well,  then,  after  a  while, 


126  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

when  the  blindest  of  us,  on  either  side,  are  silent 
in  death. 

Let  us  think  on  this !  Ten  years  toward  the 
close  of  a  generation's  life  makes  a  great  difference. 
Wise  men,  in  Church  as  well  as  State,  who  have 
read  history,  and  who  know  human  nature,  both  in 
its  strength  and  weakness,  will  take  the  fact  and 
law  of  mortality-«-most  beneficent  law  it  is ! — into 
their  estimates  for  future  times  and  relations. 

Nothing  is  more  certain  than  this,  and  yet  many 
leaders,  who  ought  to  know  and  do  not  "  know 
what  Israel  ought  to  do,"  are  forgetful  or  blind.  An 
impulse  of  passion  or  sentiment  that  carries  the 
policy  that  prevails  through  one  generation  cannot 
be  depended  on  for  the  next.  If  we  trust  a  great 
policy  to  such  a  current,  it  is  as  if  one  should  under- 
take to  navigate  a  little  river  swollen  with  a  summer 
flood :  such  a  stream  cannot  be  depended  on — it 
runs  out.  The  great  ship  had  better  trust  the  sea — 
so  wide  and  deep.  And  if  we  have  any  great  policy 
for  Churches  or  States,  nothing  is  deep  enough  to 
float  us  above  all  rocks  and  shoals  but  principles 
that  are  eternally  right. 

The  impulses  that  broke  out  in  war  in  1861, 
having  given  forth  many  premonitory  mutterings 
before  that  time,  are  already  exhausting  themselves. 
The  grave  is,  next  to  grace,  the  greatest  extinguisher 
of  wrath.  Before  now  the  "  white  rose  "  of  York 
and  the  "red  rose"  of  Lancaster  have  blended  their 


A  National  Problem.  127 

colors.  A  great  passion  in  Church  or  Nation 
runs  its  course,  like  a  fever ;  the  patient  recovers 
and  the  fever  dies  ;  or  fever  and  patient  die  to- 
gether. The  great  tidal  wave  of  1854,  tnat  over- 
whelmed the  town  of  Samoda  in  Japan,  had  sunk 
to  a  few  inches  when  it  broke  against  the  firm 
coast  of  California.  The  slight  recoil  was  never 
felt  in  the  far  China  Sea.  We  sometimes  forget 
how  wide  and  deep  is  the  ocean  of  human  life. 

If  the  spirit  of  wisdom  and  grace  be  in  them, 
these  white  men  of  the  North  and  these  white 
men  of  the  South  will  yet  understand  each  other, 
they  will  yet  bury  their  antagonisms  in  spite  of 
differences  that  may  be  beyond  their  control — dif- 
ferences good  "  after  their  kind;"  and  each  working 
out,  as  God  enables  him,  his  own  duty  and  destiny, 
they  will  at  last  unite  to  perform  a  common  duty 
to  their  dark-skinned  brother,  brought  so  strangely 
to  our  country  and  delivered  to  our  care  that  the 
great  and  world-wide  plans  of  the  Father  of  all  for 
the  good  of  all  may  be  fairly  and  fully  accomplished. 


128  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

THE  METHODS  OF  OUR  PROBLEM. 

ONE  thing  I  assume  as  settled  forever :  such 
a  problem  as  we  have  in  hand  never  was 
solved,  never  can  be  solved,  on  any  theory  or  sys- 
tem of  mere  repression.  There  has  been  no  lack 
of  experiments.  History  teems  with  examples, 
both  in  ancient  and  in  modern  times.  As  well  try 
to  prevent  volcanic  eruptions  by  shutting  down 
our  little  furnace  gates  upon  the  fires  that  burn  at 
the  heart  of  the  earth. 

Repression  may  well  be  called  the  Egyptian 
theory  of  goverment ;  Pharaoh  made  long  trial  of 
it,  with  what  result  the  world  knows.  It  is  the 
Russian  theory  now;  it  has  failed  notably,  and  men 
wait  to  see  what  explosions  and  disasters  are  yet  to 
come.  Repression  has  failed  in  Ireland.  It  has 
not  succeeded  with  our  American  Indians.  It  was 
tried  for  generations  on  Hungary  and  failed  utterly. 
The  method  of  recognition,  of  lifting  up,  has  been 
tried  in  Hungary  only  a  few  years  and  it  succeeds. 
This  method  always  succeeds ;  the  other  always 
fails.  The  system  of  mere  repression  fails  every- 
where in  the  family,  the  school,  the  factory,  the 


The  Methods  of  our  Problem.  1 29 

State,  the  Church.  Rome  has  made  every  possi- 
ble use  of  repression.  If  it  succeeded  after  a  fash- 
ion, during  the  Dark  Ages,  it  fails  now  that  all  men, 
as  well  as  Galileo,  have  found  "  that  the  world 
does  move."  The  repressive  system  is  tyranny. 
It  violates  the  divine  will;  it  is  out  of  harmony 
with  eternal  righteousness ;  it  subverts  the  order 
of  nature  as  well  as  of  grace.  Mere  repression  can- 
not succeed  where  there  is  life,  except  to  destroy. 
But  it  is  not  always  that  it  destroys  the  proposed 
victim  ;  it  destroyed  Pharaoh  ;  Israel  was  delivered 
out  of  his  hands.  There  are  other  such  instances, 
and  very  instructive  they  are. 

The  problem  before  us,  the  Northern  and  South- 
ern people  together,  and  the  Southern  people  in 
particular,  is  the  right  education  and  elevation  of 
our  black  brother,  the  free  negro,  in  our  midst.  Do 
not,  beloved  white  brother,  scare  at  this  word 
"  elevation."  Nothing  is  said  about  putting  the 
"  negro  above  the  white  rnari."  Let  me  whisper  a 
secret  in  your  ear:  T/tat  cannot  be  done  unless  you  get 
below  him.  Think  of  this,  and  if  you  find  yourself  un- 
derneath blame  yourself.  The  negro  cannot  rise  sim- 
ply because  he  is  black ;  the  white  man  cannot  stay  up 
simply  because  he  is  white.  A  man  rises,  not  by  the 
color  of  his  skin,  but  by  intelligence,  industry,  and 
integrity.  The  foremost  man  in  these  excellences 
and  virtues  must,  in  the  long  run,  be  also  the  high- 
est man.  And  it  ought  to  be  so.  Ignorance,  in- 


130  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

dolence,  immorality,  have  no  right  to  rise.  Let  the 
white  man  rise  as  high  as  he  can,  providing  always 
that  he  does  not  rise  by  wrongs  done  to  another. 
In  such  rising  there  is  no  real  elevation.  And  let 
every  other  man  rise  to  his  full  stature,  the  white, 
the  black,  the  red,  the  yellow.  No  honest  man, 
with  brains  in  his  head,  doubts  for  one  moment  that 
it  is  God's  will  that  every  man  he  ever  made  of  every 
race,  should  make  the  most  of  the  "talents"  his  Cre- 
ator gave  him.  Therefore  are  talents  given,  that 
every  man  may  be  just  as  much  of  a  man  as  he  can 
be.  The  King  at  his  coming  will  demand  his  own 
"  with  usury."  There  is  no  more  sacred  right  than 
a  man's  right  to  be  all  that  God  gives  him  ability  to 
be  in  all  good  things.  The  divine  Magna  Charta 
guarantees  this  right.  There  is  no  higher  duty  than 
that  each  human  being  do  his  utmost  to  realize  the 
fullest  possibilities  of  his  life.  Whatever  hinders 
does  infinite  damage  to  all  concerned. 

These  chapters  are  not  written  for  philosophers, 
statesmen,  scholars,  or  for  any  who  imagine  them- 
selves filled  with  all  knowledge,  but  for  my  neigh- 
bors and  fellow-citizens  who,  like  the  writer,  realize 
somewhat  the  difficulty  as  well  as  the  magnitude  of 
this  race  problem  that  Providence  has  given  us  to 
work  out.  No  exhaustive  discussions  are  proposed 
in  these  pages ;  indeed,  the  fullest  statement  could 
not  say  all  that  belongs  to  this  many-sided  and  far- 
reaching  subject. 


The  Methods  of  our  Problem.  131 

If  the  question  be  asked,  How  may  we  get  our 
dark  brother  prepared  for  his  duty  of  citizenship  ? 
I  prefer  to  change  the  form  of  the  question.  Let 
us  rather  ask,  How  can  we  help  our  brother  pre- 
pare himself  for  his  calling  and  duty  of  citizenship  ? 
Growth  is  from  within  ;  no  amount  of  work  done 
upon  the  negro  can  make  him  what  he  ought  to  be 
and  can  be.  He  must  grow  into  his  right  manhood 
and  citizenship.  The  white  race  has  reached  its 
higher  estate  by  processes  of  growth.  We  started 
low  down  and  it  has  taken  a  long  time.  We  are 
not  half  grown  yet.  We  also  may  meditate  profit- 
ably on  Isaiah  li,  I. 

Doing  things  for.  and  giving  things,  to  people  does 
not  lift  them  up,  if  the  doing  and  the  giving  do  not 
spring  a  new  hope,  a  new  aspiration,  a  new  pur- 
pose in  them,  or,  in  some  way,  vivify  into  fruitful 
life  -some  dormant  good  already  in  their  souls. 
The  test  of  our  usefulness  to  others  is  to  be  found 
in  their  character.  Do  we  make  them  wiser, 
stronger,  braver,  truer  ?  Then  we  have  lifted  them 
up  by  helping  them  to  grow  out  of  their  weakness 
and  evil  into  their  strength  and  goodness.  Why  is 
it  better  to  give  a  poor  man  a  day's  work  than  a 
day's  rations  without  the  work  ?  The  one  gift  lifts 
him  up,  the  other  pauperizes  him.  In  all  our  plans 
and  efforts  to  lift  up  the  negro  let  us  remember  that 
our  best  help  to  him  is  whatever  most  effectually 
enables  him  to  help  himself. 


132      OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

We  are  asking,  many  of  us  in  the  North  and  in 
the  South,  what  can  we  do  ?  I  know  not  that  I 
can  help  any  to  the  answer  for  them.  I  will  be 
grateful  if  I  can  answer  for  myself.  This  much  is 
clear  to  me  :  common  sense  and  common  justice 
must  be  our  guide.  Fine-spun  theories  are  too 
gossimer  for  the  tough  work  before  us.  Pretty  sen- 
timents may  grace  drawing-rooms,  and  win  ap- 
plause at  "  anniversaries,"  but  our  work  is  to  be 
done  in  smoky  cabins,  in  our  own  kitchens,  in  cot- 
ton and  corn  fields,  in  shops,  in  little  school-houses, 
in  humble  chapels,  in  court-rooms,  in  a  word,  in 
whatever  places  this  poor  and  untaught  brother's 
currents  of  life  and  labor  carry  him.  I  have  said 
nothing  of  legislative  halls  and  methods,  because 
it  seems  clear  that  neither  acts  of  Congress  nor 
of  State  Legislatures  can  reach  all  the  obscure  cor- 
ners of  our  daily  and  hourly  .relations  to  each  other. 

By  every  token,  the  laws  must  provide  for  his 
citizenship,  just  as  they  provide  for  the  white  man's, 
no  more,  no  less.  But  let  us  not  make  the  fatal 
mistake  of  supposing  that  the  mere  enactment  of 
good  laws  will  meet  the  myriad  complications  and 
difficulties  of  this  subject. 

No  perfect  scheme,  with  finished  statement  of 
details,  can  be  drawn  out  in  advance.  The  experi- 
ment will,  as  it  proceeds,  indicate  new  needs,  while 
the  effort  will  develop  new  resources  and  methods 
for  meeting  them.  Undoubtedly,  the  first  and  main 


The  Methods  of  our  Problem.  133 

thing  is  to  have  the  right  spirit.  If  all  parties  con- 
cerned really  wish  to  succeed,  and  thoroughly  pur- 
pose to  do  their  best,  success  is  sure.  A  thorough- 
going, honest  purpose  to  do  our  best  will  wonderfully 
sharpen  our  wits  as  to  the  best  methods,  and  as 
wonderfully  multiply  our  resources  for  working 
them  successfully.  There  is  no  man  so  dull  in  in- 
venting ways  and  means  as  the  man  who  feels  no 
interest  or  conscience  in  his  duties,  and  whose  chief 
pleasure  is  in  avoiding  them. 

This  new  citizen  is  a  voter,  and,  unhappily  for  all, 
he  is  not  ready  for  his  responsibilities.  Voting 
means  choosing,  and  wise  choosing  means  intelli- 
gence. Woe  to  the  land  where  those  who  hold  the 
balance  of  power  are  in  ignorance.  This  tremend- 
ous engine  of  political  power,  the  ballot,  must  be 
in  hands  that  know  what  they  are  doing.  This 
voter  must  be  educated.  Nothing  can  be  plainer 
than  this.  He  who,  in  1881,  needs  to  have  this 
proved  to  him  is  incapable  of  reasoning. 

I  will  not  entangle  my  argument  with  the  ques- 
tion of  the  relative  capacity  of  the  white  and  black 
races,  nor  will  I  speculate  about  the  African's  ca- 
pacity for  "  high  culture."  My  argument  has 
nothing  to  do  with  these  questions  ;  let  the  schools 
and  colleges  make  out  of  him  the  utmost  that  it  is 
in  him  to  make.  Then  let  the  world  measure  him 
by  what  he  does.  If  any  fear  that  he  will,  when  at 
his  fullest  growth,  be  too  great  a  man,  let  them 


134  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

grow,  or  organize  an  "  exodus,"  and  find  a  place 
where  they  will  be  free  from  his  overshadowing 
greatness.  My  argument  concerns  his  education  in 
the  three  "  Rs."  If  any  thing  in  this  world  is  set- 
tled, it  is  settled  that  the  negro  can  learn  to  read, 
to  write,  and  to  "  cipher."  And  he  learns  well  and 
rapidly.  I  want  no  proof  beyond  what  I  have  seen 
with  my  own  eyes  and  heard  with  my  own  ears. 
He  can  learn  a  great  deal  more,  but  these  parts  of 
knowledge  he  must  learn  for  his  safety  and  ours. 
These  are  the  keys ;  give  them  to  him,  and  let  him 
unlock  all  the  doors  of  wisdom  he  can.  This  is 
fair  ;  it  is  wise  ;  it  is  necessary ;  it  is  right. 

This  new  power  in  our  social  and  political  system 
must  be  educated,  and  for  the  same  reason  that 
white  illiteracy  must  be  educated.  The  negro's 
case  is  the  more  exigent  only  because  there  is  a 
larger  percentage  of  ignorance  in  his  race.  An  ig- 
norant voter,  of  whatever  color  he  may  be,  is  a 
constant  menace  and  a  certain  injury  to  the  purity 
of  elections.  As  a  voter,  therefore,  the  negro  must 
be  taught.  But  we  must  go  beyond  the  mere 
voter.  His  wife,  his  daughter,  must  be  educated 
also,  else  the  race  will  not  be  educated  ;  the  need 
is  to  teach  the  race. 

How  can  this  race  be  educated  ?  And  how  can 
the  work  be  done  most  promptly  and  wisely  ?  I 
claim  no  mastery  of  this  question,  for  it  is  very 
large  and  very  complicated.  Perhaps  no  one  man 


The  Methods  of  our  Problem.  135 

will  claim  to  see  all  its  sides,  to  see  through  it  and 
to  master  it  altogether.  This  I  know,  some  have 
failed  because  they  thought  they  had  mastered  it. 
Some  things  that  seem  clear  to  me  I  venture  to 
suggest,  feeling  my  way  to  the  wisdom  and  truth 
of  the  matter  with  such  light  as  I  have,  and  holding 
myself  ready  to  follow  any  who  have  more  light  to 
guide  our  steps. 

i.  The  first  thing  of  all  to  do  is  the  simplest,  yet, 
perhaps,  the  most  difficult — clear  the  way.  Remove 
all  hinderances;  make  the  paths  straight — not  strait; 
give  him  the  best  chance  possible  to  him.  If  all  this 
were  done  the  problem  would,  by  and  by,  solve  itself. 
To  do  this,  to  give  him  this  best  chance  possible  to 
him,  it  is  not  impossible  that  some  of  us  white  peo- 
ple of  the  South  must,  first  of  all,  put  ourselves 
through  a  course  of  schooling  in  right  views  on  this 
subject.  If  we  have  prejudices  that  prevent  us 
from  thoroughly  investigating  this  matter,  as  if  there 
were  contamination  in  the  very  subject  itself,  let  us 
make  haste  to  purify  ourselves  from  such  prejudices. 
For  such  prejudices  there  is  need  of  the  "  hyssop 
branch."  People  who  give  money  and  send  their 
sons  and  daughters  to  convert  the  heathen  over  the 
seas  should  be  ashamed  of  such  nonsense.  It  is  to 
be  hoped  that  few  among  us  indulge  such  weak- 
nesses ;  it  is  to  be  prayed  that  there  will  soon  be 
none  among  us  in  so  great  darkness  of  mind  and 
badness  of  heart. 


136  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

But  let  us  avoid  mere  sentimentalism  ;  we  are 
dealing  with  very  practical  things.  No  amount  of 
correct  thinking  and  of  good  feeling  can  meet  all 
the  demands  of  this  case.  There  are  some  things 
the  white  people  cannot  do  for  the  negro  ;  it  would 
be  a  misfortune  if  they  could.  For  example,  they 
cannot  give  him  leisure  for  his  schooling  and  his 
studies  ;  in  some  way  he  must  create  this  for  him- 
self. This  race  cannot  throw  down  its  hoe  and  take 
up  its  spelling-book  at  the  movement  of  a  wand. 
These  people  must  work,  ought  to  work,  for  their 
living.  There  is  no  help  for  it,  and  there  ought  to 
be  no  help  for  it.  This  necessity  is  not  based  upon 
their  poverty  only,  nor  at  all  in  the  color  of  their 
skin,  but  in  their  physical,  mental,  moral,  and  social 
constitution  as  human  beings.  It  is  the  primal  law 
for  all  men  of  every  color  and  condition.  An  un- 
working  race  cannot  be  truly  educated,  for  labor  is 
itself  a  part  of  education.  If  some  power  could 
feed  and  clothe  and  shelter  them  by  the  distribu- 
tion of  all  things  needful  for  their  bodies,  could  dis- 
miss them  from  their  toils  and  send  the  whole  race 
to  school  for  a  term  of  years,  the  problem  of  the 
negro's  right  education  would  not  be  solved,  al- 
though every  one  mastered  a  liberal  course  of 
studies.  Such  schooling  would  create  new  and 
harder  problems  ;  under  such  conditions  their  moral 
and  social  education  could  not  keep  pace  with  their 
mental  development,  and  thus  a  new  and  deadly 


The  Methods  of  our  Problem.  137 

virus  would  be  introduced  into  their  very  blood. 
One  obvious  result  would  be,  such  education  would 
multiply  vagabonds  and  sharpers  by  the  million. 
For  true  education  means  far  more  than  "  book 
learning  ;  "  there  must  be  education  of  the  instincts, 
the  feelings,  the  habits,  the  will,  the  conscience. 
But,  assuredly,  whatever  hinderances  to  his  educa- 
tion there  may  be  that  are  not  rooted  in  the  very 
necessity  and  nature  of  things  should  be  put  out 
of  his  way.  He  should  have  every  chance  he  can 
well  employ.  He  has  no  right  to  ask  more  ;  we 
have  no  right  to  give  less.  There  should  be  no 
opposition,  active  or  passive.  It  is  to  be  hoped 
that  there  is  now  little  opposition  to  his  education  ; 
there  should  be  none. 

2.  He  should  be  encouraged  and  cheered  to  do 
his  utmost.  Right  motives  should  be  brought  to 
bear  upon  him.  He  should  be  taught  how  dan- 
gerous to  himself,  how  hurtful  to  all,  is  citizenship 
with  ignorance.  He  should  be  taught,  as  white 
people  who  do  not  know  should  be  taught,  that 
ignorance  is  always  weakness,  and  that  voluntary 
ignorance  is  a  shame  and  a  sin.  He  should  be 
taught  that  he  who  can  secure  instruction  for  his 
children,  and  will  not,  sins  against  his  children,  his 
country,  and  his  God.  He  should  be  taught  to  feel 
himself  branded  with  infamy  when  he  can  and  will 
not  save  his  children  from  the  curse  and  bondage 
of  ignorance.  He  should  be  taught  that  slavery 


138  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

lurks  in  ignorance ;  it  may  not  be  slavery  to  a  rec- 
ognized and  responsible  master,  but,  worst  of  all, 
slavery  to  the  powers  of  darkness.  (Alas !  there 
are  thousands  of  white  people  among  us — let  any 
deny  who  will — who  need  to  learn  these  first  les- 
sons of  true  fatherhood  and  motherhood.)  He 
should  be  brought  to  see  the  value  and  blessedness 
of  knowledge — not  merely  the  learning  of  books 
and  of  the  schools,  but  of  all  knowledge  that  can 
help  to  make  him  wise  and  good  as  a  man.  The 
negro  is  more  ready  to  receive  this  lesson  than 
many  suppose.  For  him,  and  for  all  like  him,  is 
the  promise  of  that  word  of  Christ,  "  Blessed  are 
they  which  do  hunger  and  thirst,  ...  for  they  shall 
be  filled." 

3.  He  should  be  encouraged  to  do  his  utmost  to 
help  himself — to  be  a  self-supporting  man.  To 
make  the  negro's  education,  or  any  other  man's,  an 
absolute  gratuity  is  a  grievous  mistake.  The  phi- 
losophy of  this  principle  goes  deeper  than  the  skin. 
It  is  rooted  in  the  very  constitution  of  human  na- 
ture. One  of  the  most  important  parts  of  education 
is,  learning,  so  that  they  enter  into  every  fiber  of  the 
character,  the  sentiments  and  habits  of  manly  and 
womanly  personal  independence.  How  different 
the  case  of  two  fathers,  indeed  of  two  families, 
where  in  one  case  the  education  of  a  son  or  daughter 
costs  them  nothing;  where  in  the  other  case  they 
have,  at  least,  done  what  they  could!  For  example: 


The  Methods  of  our  Problem.  1 39 

During  our  last  vacation,  in  the  summer  of  1880, 
a  Georgia  farmer  talked  with  me  one  day  about 
sending  his  son  to  college.  This  is  what  he  said: 
"  We  have  one  child,  this  son ;  we  are  poor,  but 
when  he  was  a  little  boy  we  determined  to  send 
him  some  day.  My  wife  and  I  found  that,  by  close 
economy,  we  could  lay  up  about  $100  each  year; 
we  have  now  $600  in  bank  for  his  education.  Two 
years  ago,  as  soon  as  he  was  old  enough,  I  gave 
him  a  cotton  patch  that  he  might  make  enough 
himself  to  meet  his  incidental  expenses.  The  first 
year  he  made  $25;  the  second,  $50;  this  year  he 
may  make  something  more  than  $50." 

How  wise  is  this  father,  this  mother,  this  son ! 
Such  a  plan  worked  out  is  itself  an  education.  If 
his  education  go  no  further,  would  the  best  college 
training  that  cost  no  forethought,  economy,  loving 
self-denial,  be  worth  as  much  in  making  a  man  of 
this  boy? 

Of  course  this  question  of  the  negro's  education 
concerns,  almost  exclusively,  the  children  and  youth 
of  the  race.  If  the  education  of  these  children 
should  be  made  absolutely  a  free-gift,  three  evils, 
each  of  them  grave,  would  follow:  I.  The  negro 
father  would  not  depend  on  himself  as  the  head  of 
his  family ;  2.  The  process  must  be  kept  up  indef- 
initely; 3.  Many  of  the  negro's  weakest  traits  of 
character  will  be  perpetuated.  But  if  the  present 
generation  of  negroes  are  encouraged  to  help  them- 


140  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

selves  somewhat  in  educating  their  children — it 
may  be  but  little,  but  it  should  be  enough  for  them 
to  "  feel  it " — if  they  are  taught  how  they  may  help 
themselves,  the  next  generation  will  take  up  the 
task  more  vigorously  and  more  intelligently.  Thus, 
and  thus  only,  will  the  habit  of  helping  themselves 
become  the  habit  of  the  race.  How  sorely  this 
habit  is  now  needed  in  them  only  they  can  under- 
stand who  know,  from  experience,  how  completely 
the  system  of  slavery  provided  for  all  their  wants 
that,  under  that  system,  were  expected  to  be  met. 
The  slave  had  nothing  to  do  but  work  ;  every  thing 
— shelter,  clothes,  food,  medicine,  and  support  in 
old  age — was  provided  for  him.  He  could  not  ac- 
quire any  habit  of  forethought  or  instinct  of  saving. 
He  never  felt  the  necessity;  he  never  saw  the  occa- 
sion.* 

*  A  few  mechanics  among  them  managed  to  save  handsome  sums 
of  money.  Sometimes  such  a  man  "  hired  his  own  time,"  the  master 
giving  him  a  good  "  margin."  The  following  incident  will  illustrate 
the  exceptional  cases,  and  show  how  singular  were  some  of  their 
views.  The  father-in-law  of  one  of  the  professors  in  Emory  College 
was  a  Virginian  of  property.  He  owned  a  quick-witted  shoemaker 
rated  at  $2,500.  The  master  allowed  Edmund — that  was  his  name 
— to  "hire  himself"  at  such  figures  that,  in  the  course  of  some  years, 
he  accumulated  between  two  and  three  thousand  dollars.  His  master 
loved  him,  and  offered  to  sell  him  to  himself  for  $1,200 — a  little 
less  than  half  price.  Edmund  took  the  matter  into  serious  consid- 
eration, and  declined  the  offer  with  this  statement  of  the  case:  "See 
here,  Mars  Mack,  I  can't  'ford  to  own  any  $1,200  nigger;  s'pose  I 
lay  down  and  die,  I  lose  dis  money."  It  turned  out  well  for  Ed- 
mund. He  got  his  freedom  "without  money  and  without  price," 
and  saved  his  own  cash.  He  loaned  enough  to  "  Mars  Mack"  to 


.     The  Methods  of  our  Problem.  141 

4.  But  the  negroes  must  have  help  from  without 
for  a  generation  at  least.  Their  poverty  makes  this 
a  necessity,  as  poverty — utter  poverty — makes  help 
necessary  for  not  a  few  white  people.  When  I  say 
help,  I  mean  help,  not  the  transfer  of  the  entire 
burden  to  other  shoulders. 

It  is  not  simply  their  need,  but  it  is  the  economy 
of  all  to  help  them.  To  put  the  argument  on  its 
lowest  plane,  it  is  cheaper  to  teach  them  than  it  is 
to  meet  the  increased  expenses  of  government  that 
grow  inevitably  out  of  ignorance.  Surely  this  state- 
ment needs  neither  argument  nor  illustration.  It 
is  very  penny-wise  and  pound-foolish  to  withhold 
the  help  needful  to  enable  them  to  help  themselves 
to  an  education.  There  is  no  escape  for  avarice, 
twist  and  turn  as  it  may ;  if  it  will  not  build  school- 
houses  and  churches  it  must  build  jails.  Thus 
reason  and  justice  get  their  grim  revenge. 

Where  is  the  money  to  come  from  to  help  them  ? 

i.  Partly  from  the  ''public-school"  systems  of 
the  States,  counties,  and  municipalities.  Most  of 
our  Southern  State  systems  are  appallingly  inade- 
quate. The  States  do  not  support  their  school 
systems  except  in  a  meager  manner.  I  believe  the 
School  Commissioners  have  done  all  that  could  be 

start  his  business  again.  As  to  himself,  he  did  not  "  stick  to  his  last." 
He  went  into  politics,  was  elected  to  the  Virginia  Constitutional 
Convention,  and  became  a  "leader"  of  more  than  average  sense. 
Poor  fellow !  he  was  killed,  with  so  many  others,  in  the  crush-in 
of  the  Capitol  in  Richmond. 


142  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

done  with  the  pitiful  sums  of  money  at  their  com- 
mand. 

2.  Partly  from  the  Nation,  as  many  wise  men 
urge.     (I  am  not  sure  of  this,) 

3.  The  people  of  the  North  should  put  a  great 
deal  of  money  in   this  work.      Little  more  than 
the  South  itself  can  the  North  afford  to  bear  the 
burden   and   peril   to   free   institutions   that  come 
through  millions  of  untaught  negro  citizens.    Many 
of  these  good  people  have  given  to  this  work  with 
princely  liberality.     But  they  should  give  more,  and 
continue  to  give.     There  are  at  least  two  reasons 
that  they  will  recognize:  (i.)  They  made  the  negro 
a  voter  before  he  was  ready,  and  now,  by  every 
token,  they  should  do  their  best  to  get  him  ready 
as  soon  as  possible.     (2.)  They  have  the  money.     I 
am  glad  they  have  wealth,  for  many  of  them  make 
good  use  of  it.     I  know  of  no  people  in  the  world 
who  give  so  much  money  to  the  cause  of  education. 
It  is   an    immortal    honor  to  them.     Recognizing 
their  good  deeds  and  great  gifts  in  the  past,  I  say, 
nevertheless,  they  should   give   more   abundantly. 
For  they  have,  by  God's  blessing,  the  money.     The 
work  to  be  done  is  very  great,  and  it  cannot  wait 
without  grievous  loss.      Moreover,  the  North  has 
already  invested  too  much  money  in  this  problem 
to  stop  now  ;  they  cannot  afford  to  stop, 

4.  The  Southern  people  should  give  money  to 
help  educate  the  negro.     I  do  not  mean  only  give 


The  Methods  of  our  Problem.  143 

it  as  States,  in  the  payment  of  taxes ;  but  as  indi- 
viduals, they  should,  when  they  are  able  —  and 
some  are  able — give  money  to  this  cause.  If  they 
would  help  more,  perhaps  they  would  be  richer.* 
He  was  a  close  observer  and  a  wise  thinker  who 
said  :  "  There  is  that  scattereth,  and  yet  increaseth  ; 
and  there  is  that  withholdeth  more  than  is  meet, 
but  it  tendeth  to  poverty." 

The  details  of  these  ways  and  means  are  not  to 
be  argued  here.  But  "  if  there  be  first  a  willing 
mind,"  ways  and  means  will  be  found. 

*  After  this  chapter  was  written  I  was  informed  that  a  citizen  of 
Georgia,  an  ex-Confederate  and  ex-slave-holder  of  high  degree,  had 
subscribed  or  given  $5,000  to  build  a  college  for  colored  people, 
under  the  patronage  of  one  of  the  colored  Churches  in  a  city  in 
Georgia.  His  promise  is  a  bond,  his  paper  "  gilt-edge "  at  any 
bank.  All  honor  to  him  ;  may  many  imitate  his  example  ! 


144  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

SCHOOLS   FOR   NEGROES. 

r  I  "'HERE  should  be  separate  schools  for  negro 
-*•  children.  It  is  best  for  all  parties.  However 
it  may  be  in  other  sections  or  countries,  it  is  not 
best  to  mix  the  races  in  Southern  school-rooms. 
Right  or  wrong,  wise  or  foolish,  this  is  a  fact.  All 
but  lunatics  and  visionaries  recognize  facts.y  From 
our  stand-point  the  Chinaman  is  silly  for  sticking  to 
his  cue — the  memorial  and  badge  of  his  subjection 
to  an  alien  race — with  such  invincible  obstinacy. 
But  the  cue  is  dear  to  his  "celestial"  soul,  and  the 
wise  missionary  does  not  destroy  his  chance  to  do 
him  good  by  stressing  an  unnecessary  issue  about 
hair.  Wise  reformers  will  consider  even  the  weak- 
nesses of  the  people  they  would  lift  up,  just  as  wise 
doctors  consider  the  peculiarities  of  their  'patients. 
I  have  known  a  lady  thrown  into  hysterics  by  the 
presence  of  cats.  What  sort  of  doctor  would  he  be 
who  would  prescribe  cats  for  her  hysteria — cats  tied 
to  her  bedstead?  If  a  doctor  discovers  that  the 
smell  of  garlic  produces  nausea  in  a  nervous  pa- 
tient, will  he  insist  that  the  only  chance  for  a  cure 
is  in  mixing  garlic  juice  in  every  drop  of  water  the 


Schools  for  Negroes.  145 

patient  drinks  ?  Not  unless  he  is  a  quack  of  the 
first  water. 

Now  "the  facts"  are  these:  I.  Southern  white 
children,  as  a  class,  wont  sit  at  the  same  desks  with 
negro  children  ;  2.  Southern  black  children,  as  a 
class,  don't  want  to  sit  at  the  same  desks  with 
white  children.  And  this  gives  trouble  to  no  soul 
of  man,  except  to  a  small  class  of  fanatics,  who 
feel  that  all  things  human  must  yield  to  their 
fancies. 

Let  us  grant,  if  any  desire  it,  that  these  white 
children  have  not  been  delivered  from  the  spirit  of 
caste,  and  that  these  black  children  do  not  assert 
their  rights.  Neither  the  pride  of  the  one  nor  the 
weakness  of  the  other  can  be  denied  as  facts — as 
facts  that  must  be  considered.  But  as  things  are, 
and  as  they  are  likely  to  continue  to  be  till  we  are 
all  dead  who  are  troubled  about  such  things,  or 
until  it  please  God  to  create  new  and  different 
races  of  people,  this  mutual  desire  and  willingness 
for  separation  are  right.  For  this  race-separation 
should  not  cease  at  the  expense  of  the  white  child's 
sincerity  or  of  the  black  child's  self-respect.  Sin- 
cerity and  self-respect  are  more  important  than 
sitting  together,  even  granting  the  advantages  that 
have  been  claimed  for  the  plan.  Practically,  North- 
ern and  Southern  people  are  much  alike  in  their 
feelings  on  such  subjects  ;  if  they  had  had  our  his- 
tory perhaps  they  would,  on  this  too-much-talked- 
10 


146  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

of  matter,  be   neither  better   nor  worse  than  we 
are.* 

The  colored  schools  should  have  the  support, 
countenance,  (there  is  much  in  this  word  counte- 
nance,) indorsement,  and  co-operation  of  Southern 
white  people.  Reasonable  and  good  people  must 


*In  Cincinnati,  Ohio,  May,  1880,  a  very  "stalwart"  gentleman 
pressed  me  closely  on  what  he  called  the  wrong  of  our  Southern 
caste  feelings.  Said  I : 

"  Have  you  none  of  this  feeling  ?  " 

"  None,"  he  answered  promptly,  looking  me  straight  in  the  eye. 
"  With  us  the  color  of  the  skin  has  nothing  to  do  with  social  recog- 
nition. It  is  simply  a  question  of  personal  culture." 

It  occurred  to  me  at  once  that  he  had  not  been  tested  by  experi- 
ment, the  color-culture  not,  perhaps,  reaching  the  proper  standard ; 
for  I  had  met,  in  their  great  hotels  and  at  some  of  their  best  homes, 
no  colored  people  except  as  waiters  ;  but  I  had  found  the  man  I 
had  long  been  looking  for,  so  I  ventured  one  more  question : 

"  Tell  me  now,  candidly,  upon  your  conscience,  if,  seeking  a  place 
to  sleep,  you  were  to  be  ushered  into  a  room  with  two  double  beds 
in  it,  with  a  clean  white  man  in  one  bed  and  a  clean  negro  in  the 
other,  and  you  had  free  choice,  which  bed  would  you  get  in  ?  " 

He  looked  so  straight  at  me  that  I  thought  he  was  going  to  say, 
"In  with  the  negro."  But  I  was  mistaken  ;  poor  human  nature 
put  his  philosophy  to  flight.  After  a  moment's  silence,  looking 
upon  the  floor  this  time,  he  answered  slowly  and  sadly  : 

"  I  would  get  in  with  the  white  man." 

On  that  answer  we  "  fraternized."  Now,  if  my  Cincinnati  friend 
had  been  a  negro,  and  equally  candid,  he  would  have  said :  "  I 
would  get  in  with  the  black  man."  The  true  doctrine  I  suppose  to 
be  about  this  :  "  Let  every  man  be  fully  persuaded  in  his  own 
mind."  This  is  not  contrary  to  the  "  Civil  Rights'  Bill."  That  bill 
does  not  give  to  any  color  the  right  to  require  any  other  color  to 
sleep  with  it,  or  sit  by  it.  It  only,  in  this  respect,  grants  the  privi- 
lege where  both  are  agreed. 


Schools  for  Negroes.  147 

feel  kindly  toward  schools  for  negroes ;  if  they  do 
not,  they  are  ignorant.  To  do  its  best  work  in  a 
community  a  colored  school  needs  more  than  money- 
help  and  the  mere  toleration  that  allows  it  to  exist 
— it  needs  moral  and  social  support.  How  this 
is  to  be  afforded  must  be  determined  by  sensible 
people  on  the  merits  of  each  case. 

Some  things  I  may  mention  as  illustrations  of 
many  methods  of  encouragement  and  help.  The 
school  may  be  visited  by  proper  persons  at  reason- 
able hours.  The  pastor  of  the  white  Church  close 
by  could  do  good  in  this  way.  Some  of  them  do ; 
all  of  us  might  and  ought.  Official  people  might 
encourage  the  school  by  an  occasional  visit,  as  the 
mayor,  the  village  squire,  the  teacher  of  the  white 
school,  and  other  persons  of  influence  and  local 
consideration.  The  teacher  should  be  treated 
kindly  and  respectfully,  and  made  to  understand 
that  he  has  the  favor  and  support  of  all  good  peo- 
ple. Any  outrage  by  "  lewd  fellows  of  the  baser 
sort "  should  be  taken  in  hand  and  punished 
promptly,  certainly,  and  with  such  severity  as  the 
law  provides  and  the  case  demands. 

If,  on  other  grounds,  the  teacher  is  entitled  to  per- 
sonal and  social  recognition,  the  fact  of  his  teaching 
a  negro  school  should  be  no  bar.  Think,  for  exam- 
ple, of  people  admiring  David  Livingstone,  and  then 
turning  up  their  noses  at  a  teacher,  not  because  he 
is  bad,  or  ignorant,  or  ill-bred,  nor  yet  even  because 


148  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

he  is  a  negro,  but,  forsooth,  because  he  teaches  a 
negro  school !  There  is  a  very  large  intimation  of 
"  sham  "  in  this  distinction  without  a  difference. 

If  the  work  of  educating  the  negroes  of  the 
South  is  ever  to  be  carried  on  satisfactorily,  if  ever 
the  best  results  are  to  be  accomplished,  then  South- 
ern white  people  must  take  part  in  the  work  of  teach- 
ing  negro  schools. 

There  have  been  some  very  sad  and  hurtful  mis- 
takes in  the  relations  assumed  by  most  of  us  of  the 
South  to  this  whole  matter,  and  especially  in  the 
fact  that,  with  very  rare  exceptions,  our  people 
have  steadfastly  refused  to  teach  negro  children, 
especially  since  they  were  made  free,  for  love  or 
money.  They  have  recoiled  from  negro  schools  as 
if  there  were  personal  degradation  in  teaching  them. 
Perhaps  the  state  of  things  that  existed  at  the 
South  for  a  full  decade  after  the  war,  and  for  which 
Southern  people  were  not  alone  responsible — a  state 
of  things  that  made  it  impracticable  for  Southern 
white  men  and  women  to  teach  negro  schools — was 
inevitable.  But  so  it  was  ;  they  could  not  do  it 
without  "  losing  caste."  As  I  am  trying  to  state 
facts  honestly  I  should  add,  the  prevailing  senti- 
ment of  the  South  would  not  even  now  look  favor- 
ably upon  such  teachers.  (But  I  must  say  we  are 
growing  in  sense  as  well  as  grace  on  this  subject.) 
And  this  sentiment  would  feel  more  kindly  toward 
a  Northern  man  or  woman  teaching  a  neg"ro  school 


Schools  for  Negroes.  149 

than  toward  a  Southerner.  It  is  much  easier  to 
denounce  the  sentiments  that  underlie  this  state  of 
things  than  to  cure  them.  Let  our  Northern 
friends,  who  are  now  happily  free,  as  they  tell  us, 
from  such  follies,  consider  Canterbury  Green  in 
1831  and  1834.  They  were  not  always  so  wise  and 
good  as  they  are  now;  moreover,  many  of  them 
are  not  yet  "  perfect "  in  this  grace ;  all  have  not 
yet  "  attained  "  this  height. 

But,  in  all  truth  and  common  sense,  there  is  no 
reason  for  discounting,  in  any  respect,  a  white  man 
or  woman  simply  for  teaching  negroes.  It  is  ut- 
terly absurd.  May  it  not,  also,  be  sinful  ?  Let  us 
consider  our  attitude  for  a  moment.  We  have  the 
negroes  to  cook  for  us,  and  if  they  do  not  know  how, 
as  is  often  the  case,  our  wives  and  daughters  teach 
them.  We  employ  them  in  all  sorts  of  ways. 
When  elections  come  on  we  ask  not  only  their 
votes  but  their  "  social  influence."  Candidates, 
from  governor  to  coroner,  do  this,  earnestly,  in- 
variably, and  without  social  discredit.  We  sell 
goods  to  them,  we  buy  from  them,  we  practice  law 
for  them,  we  practice  medicine  for  them,  and  it  is 
all  right  enough.  In  all  business  relations,  except 
teaching,  so  far  as  I  can  remember  our  ways  on  this 
subject,  whether  as  employers  or  as  employe's,  we 
think  it  is  all  fair,  and  so  -do  our  wise  neighbors. 
How  utterly  and  childishly  absurd  it  is  to  "  make 
an  exception  "  if  one  teaches  a  negro  child  how  to 


OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

spell,  to  read,  and  to  write !  Will  some  master  in 
such  fine  knowledge  explain  just  wherein  it  is  a 
nice  thing  to  sell  goods  to  a  negro  or  to  buy  from 
him,  to  practice  law  for  him,  to  give  him  medicine, 
but  not  quite  respectable  to  teach  him  whatever  he 
can  learn  that  we  can  teach? 

Some  have  made  a  considerable  ado  about 
"  Yankee  school  teachers  "  in  the  negro  schools  in 
the  South,  and  in  some  cases  our  heathen  have 
acted  much  as  the  heathen  of  Canterbury  Green 
acted  in  1831.  Perhaps  some  of  them  have  not 
been  altogether  to  our  taste  ;  perhaps  some  of  them 
have  mixed  in  with  the  "  three  Rs  "  some  things 
not  to  edification.  But  what  else  could  be  done? 
Would  qualified  Southern  men  and  women  have 
taken  these  places  when  the  Northern  teachers 
came  ?  Would  they  do  it  now  ?  Not  generally, 
though  some  of  the  best  would,  as  a  very  few  of 
the  best  have  begun  to  do.  Suppose  these  North- 
ern teachers  had  not  come,  that  nobody  had  taught 
the  negroes,  set  free,  and  citizens !  The  South 
would  have  been  uninhabitable  by  this  time. 
Some  may  resent  this ;  be  it  so,  they  resent  the 
truth. 

It  was  St.  Paul  who  asked  the  fiery  and  incon- 
stant Galatians,  "  Am  I  therefore  become  your  ene- 
my because  I  tell  you  the  truth  ?  " 

I  have  had  good  reason  to  believe  that  many  of 
these  schools  would  have  been  filled,  by  preference, 


Scliools  for  Negroes.  1 5 1 

with  Southern  teachers  had  they  been  available.  I 
have  reason  to  know,  at  this  writing,  that  some 
good  negro  schools  can  be  obtained  for  Southern 
teachers,  and  that  they  are  preferred,  if  suitable 
persons  can  be  found. 

If,  from  this  showing,  our  Northern  friends  con- 
clude that  "it  is  better  to  let  these  unreasonable 
people  go,  and  furnish  all  these  schools  ourselves," 
then  I  tell  them  they  will  conclude  hastily  and  un- 
wisely. For  it  is  most  important  that  Southern 
white  men  and  women  take  part  in  the  work  of 
teaching  the  negroes.  And  some  day,  assuredly, 
we  will  outgrow  our  childish  weaknesses  on  this 
subject.  May  it  be  soon !  No  whim  can  hold  its 
own  against  common  sense,  common  interest,  and 
religious  principle. 

Leaving  the  higher  ground  of  duty,  I  affirm  that 
every  consideration  of  sound  policy  should  lead 
Southern  whites  to  teach  negro  schools.  I  am  sure 
that,  other  things  being  equal,  Southern  teachers 
can  do  more  for  the  advancement  of  negro  stu- 
dents. Here  I  am  driven  to  theory,  for  the  most 
part.  There  has  been  too  little  experiment  to  put 
the  argument  on  a  basis  of  ascertained  and  indis- 
putable facts.  But  I  am  reasonably  confident  of 
the  soundness  of  the  view  presented.  It  ought  to 
be  true  ;  for  the  Southern  whites  understand  the 
negroes  better  than  other  white  people  do  or 
can. 


152  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

Now,  if  it  is  certain  that  these  two  races,  so 
strangely  associated  in  the  providence  of  God,  will 
remain  together  ;  if.  it  is  desirable  that  they  sustain 
friendly  relations  in  the  future  ;  if  it  is  important 
that  they  sustain  mutually  useful  relations  for  all 
time  to  come,  then,  I  conclude,  although  with  lit- 
tle experiment  and  few  facts,  that  Southern  men 
and  women  have  a  great  opportunity,  if  they  will 
only  be  as  wise  as  they  are  really  well-disposed,  and 
teach  the  children  of  the  negroes  whenever  and 
wherever  they  can. 

If  the  best  man  or  woman  in  the  South,  if  the 
most  nobly-connected  member  of  the  "oldest  and 
best  family,"  should  go  into  the  wilds  of  Africa,  as 
a  missionary,  to  teach  Mteza's  people,  there  is  not 
a  human  creature,  with  sense  or  soul,  who  would 
not  honor  the  mission;  Who  can  taboo  this  man 
or  woman  for  teaching  negro  children  in  a  Georgia 
village,  and  give  a  rational  reason  for  the  differ- 
ence ?  Does  one  say,  It  is  the  glamour  of  ro- 
mance, the  heroism,  the  lofty  devotion,  of  the  mis- 
sionary that  commands  homage  ?  This  is  not  the 
whole  case.  If  this  person,  instead  of  going  to 
Africa  to  teach  Mteza's  children,  should  stay  in 
Georgia  and  teach  white  children,  there  would  be 
no  social  taboo.  We  must  learn  better  than  this ; 
there  is  neither  sense  nor  religion  in  discounting 
people,  otherwise  worthy,  for  teaching  negroes. 
This  feeling  wont  bear  the  light. 


Schools  for  Negroes.  153 

A  large  part  of  this  work  of  educating  the  black 
race  must  be  done  by  negroes  themselves.  It 
would  be,  in  many  respects,  better  for  them  if  they 
could  furnish  thoroughly-trained  and  competent 
teachers  for  all  their  schools.  Thanks  to  large- 
hearted  and  far-seeing  charity  north  of  us,  and  to 
the  political  sagacity  of  some  of  our  Southern 
States,  many  negroes  have  already  received  educa- 
tion enough  to  make  them  very  useful  to  their  own 
people.  In  my  own  village  of  Oxford,  one  of  these 
better-taught  negroes,  a  young  woman  from  one 
of  the  Atlanta  training-schools,  has  been  teach- 
ing for  several  months  before  the  Christmas  just 
passed.  And  this  very  morning,  a  "committee"  of 
colored  men  met  in  my  kitchen  to  "settle  with  the 
teacher."  They  had  pledged  themselves  to  "  add 
enough  "  to  the  State  "  School  Fund  "  to  "  make 
up"  a  salary  of  $26  a  month.  Part  of  this  supple- 
mental fund  was  made  up  by  the  parents  of  the 
colored  children ;  part  of  it  by  contributions  from 
colored  men  without  children.  My  cook,  an  old 
bachelor,  a  man  of  fine  sense  and  character,  "  put 
in  his  part."  And  herein  Bristow  Maxwell  is 
an  "  ensample "  unto  many  bachelors  of  lighter' 
hue. 

Very  often  and  in  many  ways  these  colored 
teachers  of  colored  schools  can  be  greatly  helped 
by  the  kind  and  hearty  recognition  of  persons  of 
influence  in  a  community.  Negroes  set  great  store 


154  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

by  the  opinion  of  the  village  squire,  doctor,  or  other 
notables.  If  their  teachers  are  respected  by  the 
white  leaders  it  increases  tenfold  their  own  respect 
for  them,  and,  therefore,  their  power  to  do  good. 
As  to  how  such  helpful  recognition  shall  be  given 
no  rules  will  answer.  Good  sense,  a  kind  heart, 
and  a  just  spirit,  will  make  it  easy  in  every  case. 
It  is  needless  to  talk  of  what  we  could  or  could  not 
have  done  fifteen  years  ago.  It  is  better  to  do 
our  duty  to-day  than  to  defend  the  past  or  to  be 
"  consistent "  with  its  mistakes.  It  is  enough  to 
know  that  we,  of  to-day,  can  now  help  this  good 
work  in  a  hundred  ways.  Will  we  do  it?  Most 
certainly — provided  we  be  wise  and  have  the  spirit 
of  Christ  within  us. 

No  doubt  this  question  will  take  on  new  phases 
in  the  not  distant  future.  It  is  certain  that  as  col- 
ored men  and  women  increase  in  numbers  they  will 
be  in  demand,  by  their  people  at  least,  for  various 
services.  After  a  while  there  will  be  many  negro 
lawyers  and  doctors.  And  there  seems  to  me  to 
be  no  sensible  reason  why  there  should  not  be 
trained  men  to  serve  their  race  in  these  impor- 
tant and  necessary  callings.  There  is  already  in 
Nashville,  Tennessee — city  of  universities — a  good 
medical  school  for  negroes.  There  is  another  in 
North  Carolina,  and  possibly  others.  The  opening 
of  the  "  Meharry  Medical  College,"  in  the  spring 
of  1880,  was  attended,  and  the  enterprise  sane- 


Schools  for  Negroes.  155 

tioned,  by  many  of  the  first  men  of  the  State  and 
city.  * 

In  all  these  directions  of  educated  African  talent 
and  energy  the  "supply"  will  be  regulated  by  the 
"  demand."  Whatever  new  factors  in  this  equation 
the  future  develops,  let  the  men  of  the  future  adjust. 
In  these  respects,  at  least,  let  the  future  take  care 
of  itself. 

As  for  our  part,  let  us  observe  the  wise  counsel 
of  Thomas  Carlyle,  "  Do  the  duty  that  lies  nearest 
thee ;  the  next  will  already  have  become  plainer." 
We  may  be  sure  that  we  can,  in  no  way,  get  ready 
for  the  future,  if  we  fail  to  take  care  of  the  present. 
With  or  without  us  the  future  comes,  with  all  its 
possibilities ;  and  this  good  and  necessary  work  of 
teaching  and  lifting  up  the  negro  race  in  the  South 
will  go  on,  with  or  without  our  help.  We  may 
greatly  retard — we  cannot,  were  we  foolish  enough 
to  try,  effectually  or  permanently  hinder — its  prog- 
ress. But  this  we  can  do :  by  neglect  and  failure 
in  our  duty  now,  we  can  rob  ourselves  of  vast  ben- 
efits the  future  will  bring  to  us,  if  we  are  faithful 
to-day. 

There  has  never  been  a  time  when  the  negro, 
whether  slave  or  freedman,  has  not  been  upon  the 
heart  and  conscience  of  thousands  of  good  people 

*  One  of  its  chief  founders,  Mr.  Hugh  Meharry,  died  near  the 
close  of  1880,  at  his  home  in  Dement,  Illinois,  in  a  good  old  age, 
full  of  faith  and  good  works. 


156  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

in  the  South — as  good  people  as  live  in  this  world. 
Multitudes  of  them  have  tried,  in  many  ways,  to 
be  useful  to  the  negro.  They  have  done  unspeak- 
ably more  than  they  have  had  credit  for.  They 
have  not  had  as  many  opportunities,  since  1865,  to 
be  useful  to  the  negro  as  uninformed  persons  have 
supposed.  For  a  long  time  the  negro  wanted  little 
that  we  could  give  him,  except  wages  for  his  work, 
and  help  when  he  got  into  trouble.  Then  he  knew 
where  to  go.  The  negro  himself  was,  for  a  time, 
exclusive ;  he  did  not  care  to  have  Southern  white 
men  in  his  churches  or  about  his  schools.  They 
were  taught,  by  evil  persons,  to  suspect  us  all.  But 
all  this — explain  it  as  any  please — is  changing.  We 
are  now  welcomed  to  their  pulpits  as  we  have  not 
been  welcomed  in  fifteen  years.  On  this  point,  I 
speak  that  I  do  know,  and  testify  that  I  have  seen. 
I  wish  to  be  truthful.  Many  of  our  people  have 
not  been  as  prompt  to  accept  these  friendly  over- 
tures as,  it  seems  to  me,  they  ought  to  have  been. 
Many  could  have  done  more  than  they  have  done. 
I  think  I  know  my  neighbors  and  the  people  of  the 
South,  and  I  give  it  as  my  opinion  that  there  is 
among  us  a  wide-spread  feeling  of  awakened  con- 
science as  to  our  relations  to  the  negroes ;  thou- 
sands of  us  feel,  and  feel  deeply,  that  we  ought  to 
do  more ;  and  thousands  of  us  intend  to  do  more 
for  their  social,  mental,  and  religious  welfare.  We 
had  better  excuses  ten,  even  five,  years  ago  than 


Schools  for  Negroes.  157 

we  have  now.  Indeed,  there  is  little  excuse  for  us 
at  this  time,  1881,  if  we  fail  to  do  a  great  and  gra- 
cious work  for  the  moral  uplifting  of  the  negroes. 
It  seems  to  me  far  less  important  that  any  great 
scheme  of  things  be  devised  than  that  each  Chris- 
tian man  and  woman  do  whatever  useful  thing  for 
the  negro  there  may  come  to  hand.  In  this  way 
the  saving  leaven  will  be  diffused  "  till  the  whole 
be  leavened."  For  example,  it  came  to  my  knowl- 
edge some  time  ago  that  a  little  boy,  in  his  eleventh 
year,  has  been  for  some  time  teaching  a  negro  man 
thirty  years  old,  and  a  servant  in  his  father's  fam- 
ily, to  read  and  "  add  sums."  Why  cannot  this 
little  effort  be  repeated  in  half  a  million  Southern- 
families  at  once,  and  without  the  intervention  of  a 
"society"  or  the  appropriation  of  a  dollar?  What 
a  harvest  would  follow !  what  new  inspirations ! 
what  re-awakening  of  kindly  affections  !  what  ce- 
menting of  friendly  ties !  what  light  and  truth  and 
grace,  with  God's  blessings  on  both  races  and  upon 
the  whole  country! 


158  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

SOME  WORK  GOOD  PEOPLE  ARE  DOING. 

NO  honest  man  who  can  read  and  understand 
statistics  will  study  the  United  States  Census, 
or  the  Annual  Reports  of  the  Honorable  Commis- 
sioner of  Education,  and  deny  that  there  is  an  ap- 
palling mass  of  illiteracy  in  the  Southern  States,  both 
among  the  white  people  and  the  negroes.  As  to  the 
illiteracy  of  the  negroes,  (who  make  the  vast  majority 
of  untaught  people  in  the  South,)  something  may 
be  said  in  extenuation.  As  to  illiteracy  among  the 
white  people  of  the  South,  I  do  not  know  any 
excuse  good  enough  to  offer.  /  wish  I  did. 

In  the  United  States  Senate,  December  15,  1880, 
the  Hon.  Joseph  E.  Brown,  one  of  the  senators 
from  Georgia,  delivered  an  able  speech  on  the  "  Bill 
to  Establish  an  Educational  Fund,"  etc.  A  few 
paragraphs  I  quote  because  they  state  fairly  a  case 
not  fully  understood,  it  seems.  Senator  Brown,  after 
describing  the  processes  by  which  the  negro  became 
a  freeman  and  a  voter,  proceeds  to  state  the  attitude 
of  the  South  toward  the  question  of  his  education 
then  and  now.  The  senator  said  : 

"  A  grave  problem  arises  here  for  solution.     They 


Some  Work  Good  People  are  Doing.  159 

must  be  educated  ;  but  we  are  not  able  to  educate 
them.  Why  not?  We  claimed  to  be  a  wealthy 
people  before  the  war.  So  we  were ;  but  we  lost, 
according  to  the  best  estimates,  about  two  billions 
of  dollars  in  the  value  of  our  slaves.  It  was  that 
much  gold  value,  our  own  under  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States,  which  we  lost  by  the  war,  and 
it  was  gone  forever.  That  impoverished  us  to  that 
extent,  and  it  was  a  very  heavy  draft.  Then  we 
had  to  support  the  Confederate  armies  for  four 
years,  without  a  dollar  of  help,  out  of  our  substance. 
True,  we  issued  Confederate  bonds  and  notes; 
they  were  paid  out  of  our  substance,  but  at  the  end 
of  the  war  they  were  repudiated,  and  they  became 
as  ashes  in  our  hands.  We  lost,  then,  not  only  two 
billions  in  slaves,  but  we  lost  about  two  billions 
more  in  the  support  of  our  armies  for  four  years. 
Then  we  lost  immense  amounts  in  the  destruction 
of  property  by  the  armies  outside  of  what  was  nec- 
essary to  feed  and  clothe  them. 

"  But  that  was  not  all.  At  the  end  of  the  struggle 
we  had  to  return  to  the  Union  and  resume  our  posi- 
tion, and  take  upon  ourselves  our  just  proportion, 
according  to  our  means,  of  the  war  debt  contracted 
by  the  government  in  the  suppression  of  what  is 
known  as  the  Rebellion.  Then,  I  say,  with  these 
drafts  upon  us  we  are  not  able  to  educate  these  four 
millions  [now  more  than  six]  of  people  that  were 
turned  loose  among  us.  As  I  have  already  stated, 


160  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

during  the  period  of  slavery  it  was  not  our  policy  to 
educate  them  ;  it  was  incompatible,  as  we  thought, 
with  the  relation  existing  between  the  two  races. 
Now  that  they  are  citizens  we  all  agree  that  it  is 
our  policy  to  educate  them.  As  they  are  citizens, 
let  us  make  them  the  best  citizens  we  can.  I  am 
glad  to  see  that  they  show  a  strong  disposition  to 
do  every  thing  in  their  power  for  the  education  of 
their  children. 

"  Then  I  say  the  provision  of  the  bill  that  gives 
for  ten  years,  at  least,  the  advantage  to  the  States 
where  there  is  most  illiteracy  is  a  just  and  a  wise 
provision,  and  I  thank  the  senators  from  New 
England  and  the  other  wealthier  States  for  the 
sense  of  justice  they  exhibit  in  coming  forward  and 
showing  a  willingness  to  aid  in  the  education  of 
these  people.  We  all  agree  that  it  is  important 
that  they  be  educated.  You  will  agree  with  me 
that  we  in  the  Southern  States  are  not  now  able 
to  educate  them  and  our  own  children.  They 
were  set  free  as  a  necessity  of  the  Union.  You  so 
regarded  it.  Then  it  is  proper  that  the  Union 
should  come  forward,  and  with  its  vast  resources 
aid  in  their  education  ;  and  I  am  glad  to  see  a  move- 
ment made  that  looks  in  that  direction. 

"  I  confess  I  have  better  hopes  for  the  race  for 
the  future  than  I  had  when  emancipation  took  place. 
They  have  shown  a  capacity  to  receive  education, 
and  a  disposition  to  elevate  themselves,  that  is  ex- 


Some  Work  Good  People  are  Doing.  161 

ceedingly  gratifying,  not  only  to  me,  but  to  every 
right-thinking  Southern  man.  And  I  wish  you  to 
understand  that  we  harbor  no  hostility  to  the  race 
in  the  South.  There  are  many  reasons  why  we 
should  not,  no  good  reasons  why  we  should.  They 
were  raised  with  us ;  they  played  with  us  as  chil- 
dren. Under  the  slavery  system  the  relations  were 
kind.  When  the  war  came  on  it  was  supposed  by 
many  that  they  would  rise  in  insurrection  and  soon 
disband  our  armies.  They  at  no  time  ever  behaved 
with  more  loyalty  to  us,  or  with  more  propriety. 
Since  the  end  of  the  war,  when,  as  we  thought,  you 
very  unwisely  gave  them  the  ballot,  they  have 
exercised  the  rights  of  freemen  with  a  moderation 
that  probably  no  other  race  would  have  done. 
Therefore,  I  say,  it  is  our  duty  in  the  South  espe 
daily,  and  I  think  yours  in  the  North  as  well,  to 
encourage  them,  and,  as  they  are  now  citizens,  to 
elevate  them  and  make  them  the  best  citizens  pos- 
sible. 

"  But,  as  I  stated  a  while  ago,  I  have  given  you  a 
reason  why  there  is  such  a  vast  preponderance  of 
illiteracy  now  in  our  section.  It  is  not  only  due  to 
the  fact  that  we  did  not  have  the  common-school 
systems  in  the  Southern  States  prior  to  emancipa- 
tion, but  that  the  four  millions  of  freedmen  were 
added  to  our  population  as  citizens,  without  educa- 
tion. Then  we  must  appeal  to  you  not  only  now, 

but  in  the  future,  to  be  liberal  toward  the  South  in 
11 


162  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

aiding  in  the  education  of  these  people.  I  know 
there  have  been  complaints  that  they  may  have 
been  cheated  in  some  instances  at  the  ballot-box. 
Ignorance  may  be  cheated  any  where.  Doubtless, 
senators,  you  have  seen  the  more  ignorant  class 
cheated  in  your  own  States.  If  you  would  guard 
against  this  effectually  in  the  future,  educate  them  ; 
teach  them  to  know  their  rights,  and,  knowing  them, 
they  will  maintain  them." 

What  Senator  Brown  says  of  the  prostration  of 
the  Southern  States  at  the  close  of  the  war  goes 
far  to  explain  the  fact  that  the  Southern  Churches 
have  done  comparatively  little  in  educating  the 
emancipated  negroes.  The  truth  is,  thousands  of 
Southern  whites  have  been  utterly  unable  to  edu- 
cate their  own  children.  With  the  colleges  of  the 
South  since  the  war  it  has  been  one  long  struggle 
for  existence.  There  is — with  the  the  exception  of 
Vanderbilt  University,  founded  by  the  liberality 
of  a  broad-minded  and  patriotic  citizen  of  New 
York — hardly  one  well  endowed  college  or  univer- 
sity in  the  South.  I  am  speaking  of  institutions 
under  the  care  of  the  Church.  Many  of  them  are 
well  officered  in  every  respect.  Among  their  facul- 
ties are  many  men  who  have  prepared  themselves 
for  teaching  by  the  use  of  the  best  opportunities 
afforded  in  this  country  and  in  Europe.  They 
have  nobly  undertaken  to  help  the  poor  young  men 
and  women  of  their  section,  and  have  done  the  very 


Some  Work  Good  People  are  Doing.          1 63 

best  they  could,  themselves  battling  with  half  pay 
and  poverty  year  after  year. 

The  worst  fault  of  the  Southern  people  since  the 
war  in  relation  to  the  negro's  education  has  not 
been  that  they  themselves  have  done  so  little,  but 
that  they  have  not  more  cordially  co-operated  with 
those  who  were  able  to  do  great  things  and  were 
trying  hard  to  do  them.  For  one,  I  am  sure  that  I 
might  have  done  much  that  I  have  not  done  to 
help  those  to  whom,  in  God's  providence,  this 
work  was  given.  But  both  sides,  so  far  as  rightly 
understanding  each  other  was  concerned,  were  mov- 
ing in  something  like  a  London  fog.  God  be 
praised,  the  blue  sky  is  breaking  over  us  all  at  last ! 

But,  after  all,  the  South  has  done  and  is  doing  a 
great  deal  more  than  some  people  have  thought. 
The  Report  of  the  Commissioner  of  Education  for 
1878,  the  last  available  to  me,  gives  us  most  en- 
couraging statements.  During  1878  the  former 
slave  States  expended  on  their  public  schools, 
$11,760,251.  But  it  is  fair  to  state  that  of  this 
amount  the  three  "  Border  States,"  Maryland,  Mis- 
souri and  Kentucky,  expended  $5,129393.  In  the 
public  schools  of  the  Southern  States  there  were  en- 
rolled 2,034,946  white  children,  and  675,150  colored 
children. 

The  fullest  single  statement  that  I  have  seen  of  the 
work  done  by  States  in  the  education  of  the  negroes 
in  the  South  mav  be  found  in  an  able  address 


164  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

delivered  by  the  Hon.  Gustavus  J.  Orr,  LL.D., 
State  School  Commissioner  of  Georgia,  before  the 
National  Educational  Association  at  its  meeting  at 
Chautauqua  in  the  summer  of  1880,  on  "  The  Educa- 
tion of  the  Negro ;  its  Rise,  Progress,  and  Present 
Status."  Perhaps  no  man  in  the  South  is  more 
competent  to  state  this  case.  Dr.  Orr  is  trusted 
and  honored  by  all  who  know  him  for  his  ability, 
learning,  and  conscientious  fidelity  to  every  trust. 
He  has  accomplished  wonders  in  Georgia,  in  the 
administration  of  the  affairs  of  his  department, 
considering  the  limited  resources  at  his  command. 
Three  paragraphs  from  Dr.  Orr's  address  I  quote 
here,  wishing  that  I  could  reproduce  the  whole  of 
his  statement  and  argument.  After  stating  that 
the  public  school  systems  of  the  South  began  their 
work  with  the  "  new  constitutions,"  Dr.  Orr  says : 

"  The  adoption  of  these  constitutions  marks  the 
era  of  the  admission  of  the  negro,  with  the  free  con- 
sent of  the  white  race,  to.  the  full  rights  of  citi- 
zenship, including  the  rights  to  free  education.  The 
great  moral  revolution,  which  had  been  in  progress  for 
nearly  two  decades,  was  now  fully  accomplished.  I 
have  endeavored  to  show  you  the  difficulties  through 
which  it  was  necessary  to  pass  before  this  end  could 
be  reached.  It  only  remains  now  for  me  to  speak 
of  educational  results — of  what  has  been  actually 
accomplished.  I  may  state,  then,  that  we  have 
made  a  brave  beginning.  While  what  we  havejdone 


Some  Work  Good  People  are  Doing.          165 

may  not  be  anything  to  boast  of  in  itself,  yet,  con- 
sidered in  the  light  of  the  surroundings,  we  are  not 
ashamed  of  it.  We  have  given  to  the  negro  in  our 
constitutions  and  in  our  statutes  equal  educational 
rights.  We  have  sought,  in  administering  these 
statutes,  to  hold  the  balance  evenly.  I  can  say  for 
myself  that  there  is  nothing  in  my  official  career  of 
which  I  am  prouder  than  the  universal  recognition 
of  the  truth  of  this  statement  in  respect  to  my  own 
administration  by  our  colored  friends  in  Georgia. 
Large  numbers  of  our  colored  people  have  learned 
to  read  and  write  and  to  make  easy  calculations. 
They  have,  moreover,  been  taught  something  of  the 
history  of  this  great  country,  and  of  the  geography 
of  this  and  other  lands,  and  of  the  structure  of  the 
English  language.  In  our  cities  our  schools  are 
kept  up  from  eight  to  ten  months  of  the  year;  but 
in  country  places  the  terms  are  necessarily  short, 
being  only  from  three  to  five  months.  What  we 
do,  however,  for  one  race,  the  same  we  do  for  the 
other." 

Every  informed  man  in  Georgia  knows  that  Dr. 
Orr  is,  by  the  justice  of  his  administration,  fully  en- 
titled to  his  manly  boast.  He  had  endeavored, 
without  full  success,  to  obtain  complete  statistics 
for  the  fifteen  Southern  States.  But  the  following 
paragraph  shows  something  of  the  work  that  has 
been  done ;  moreover,  it  shows  progress  that  de- 
serves commendation  and  inspires  hope  : 


1 66  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

"  In  Virginia,  beginning  with  the  year  1871,  the 
colored  enrollment  for  successive  years  was  as  fol- 
lows: 38,554,46.736,47,169,  52,086,  54,941,62,178, 
65,043,  61,772,  35,768.  In  South  Carolina  the  same 
enrollment  from  1870  has  been,  15,894,  33,834,  38,- 
635»  46,535»  56,249,  63,415,  70,802,  55,952,  62,120, 
64,095.  In  Georgia,  beginning  in  1871  and  omitting 
1872,  when  there  were  no  public  schools,  the  same 
record  reads,  6,664,  19,755,  42,374.  50,35$,  57-987> 
62,330,  72,655,  while  in  Mississippi,  beginning  with 
1875,  the  same  figures  were,  89,813,  90,178,  104,777, 
111,796.  The  only  year  for  which  my  correspond- 
ence enables  me  to  present  the  grand  aggregate 
for  the  entire  South  was  the  year  1878.  The  attend- 
ance for  this  year  foots  up  the  astonishing  sum  of 
738,164,  the  reports  being  accurate  for  all  the  States 
except  Arkansas,  Florida,  and  Louisiana,  in  which, 
as  already  stated,  careful  estimates  were  made. 
When  confronted  by  a  record  like  the  foregoing, 
achieved  in  the  midst  of  the  difficulties  that  beset 
us  on  every  side,  as  a  friend  of  the  colored  race  I 
thank  God  and  take  courage  !  " 

The  Southern  States  are  doing  more  for  the 
"  higher  education "  of  the  colored  people  than 
many  suppose.  Dr.  Orr  gives  the  following  state- 
ments :  "  Maryland  appropriates  $2,000  per  annum 
for  the  support  of  a  normal  school  for  the  training 
of  colored  teachers;  out  of  the  proceeds  of  the 
'  Land  Scrip  '  fund  donated  by  Congress,  Virginia 


Some  Work  Good  People  are  Doing.          167 

gives  $10,000  for  the  school  at  Hampton.  South 
Carolina  gives  $7,000  to  Claflin  University ;  Georgia 
pays,  out  of  her  own  treasury,  $8,000  to  the  Atlanta 
University  ;  Mississippi  pays  for  the  higher  educa- 
tion of  the  colored  youth  an  average  of  $10,000  per 
annum  ;  the  new  constitution  of  Louisiana  provides 
for  the  same  purpose  an  annual  appropriation  of  not 
less  than  $5,000,  nor  more  than  $10,000 ;  Missouri  ap- 
propriates $5,000  per  annum  to  the  Lincoln  Insti- 
tute, a  school  for  the  training  of  colored  teachers." 

Dr.  Orr's  address  closes  with  words  that  the  best 
people  in  the  South,  the  people  who  are  going  to 
shape  its  future  policy,  heartily  indorse  : 

"  Whether  they  shall  ever  be  prepared,  in  mass, 
for  the  intelligent,  efficient,  satisfactory  discharge 
of  the  functions  of  citizenship  is  a  question.  I  be- 
lieve they  will,  in  spite  of  the  mistakes  that  have 
been  committed,  if  the  States,  the  general  govern- 
ment, and  the  various  Christian  Churches  shall  do 
their  full  duty  in  the  matter.  That  overruling 
Providence  which  has  shaped  the  events  of  the  past 
will  not  abandon  them,  or  us,  if  we  act  like  true  men 
and  Christians.  In  view  of  the  mode  of  their  intro- 
duction among  us,  and  of  the  condition  in  which 
they  were  so  long  kept  by  laws  sanctioned  by  the 
representatives  of  the  entire  people,  and  of  the 
manner  in  which  their  emancipation  was  effected, 
we  of  the  South  believe  that  the  duty  of  providing 
the  means  of  preparing  them  for  citizenship  belongs 


1 68  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

to  the  whole  country.  We  ourselves,  however, 
have  a  duty  to  perform,  which  we  do  not  intend  to 
shirk.  I  think  I  can  speak  for  the  entire  South, 
when  I  say  that  we  are  determined  to  stand  by  all 
that  has  been  done.  They  have  been  declared  free  : 
to  this  we  most  heartily  consent.  They  have 
been  admitted  to  all  the  rights  of  citizenship  ;  in  this 
we  acquiesce.  Our  State  constitutions  and  our  laws 
have  declared  that  they  shall  be  educated  ;  to  bring 
about  this  result  we  will  do  all  that  in  us  lies." 

A  great  and  noble  work  has  been  done  by  North- 
ern philanthropists  for  the  education  and  uplifting 
of  the  emancipated  negroes.  I  regret  that  it  is  not 
understood  in  the  South  as  it  deserves  to  be.  Some 
mistakes  that  were  made  in  the  prosecution  of  this 
good  work  have  been  alluded  to,  but,  take  it  all  in 
all,  such  work  has  not  often  been  done  in  any  age 
or  country.  Let  us  look  into  this  work  somewhat, 
at  least  take  a  general  survey  of  it.  The  aggregates 
are  impressive  ;  the  details  are  deeply  interesting. 

It  is  right  to  say  that  much  was  done  of  perma- 
nent value  for  the  education  of  the  emancipated 
negroes  by  the  United  States  government,. through 
the  Freedmen's  Bureau.  It  may  be  true  that  the 
very  best  work  done  through  this  agency  of  the 
government  was  its  contribution  to  the  education  of 
the  new-made  citizens. 

Mr.  Eaton  gives  us  the  names  and  locations  of 
thirty-four  "  normal  schools"  for  colored  people; 


Some  Work  Good  People  are  Doing.          169 

twenty-eight  "  institutions  for  secondary  instruc- 
tion ;"  fifteen  "  universities  and  colleges,"  one  of 
these  being  in  Ohio,  and  one  in  Pennsylvania  ;  of 
"theological  schools,"  either  distinctively  such  or 
providing  for  this  with  other  departments,  there 
are  nineteen,  all  but  two  of  them  being  located 
in  the  South.  There  are  three  "  schools  of  law," 
and  four  "  schools  of  medicine."  Of  the  normal 
schools,  three  are  exclusively  State  institutions,  as 
in  Alabama,  North  Carolina,  and  Arkansas.  At  the 
normal  schools  there  were,  in  1878,  5,236  pupils; 
at  the  "institutions  for  secondary  instruction" 
there  were  5,290;  at  the  "colleges  and  universi- 
ties" there  were  1,620;  at  the  "schools  of  theol- 
ogy "  there  were  626 ;  at  the  "  law  schools "  44 ; 
and  at  the  "  medical  schools  "  94.  This  is  a  good 
showing  thirteen  years  after  the  close  of  the  war. 
And  Mr.  Eaton  shows  that  in  all  these  schools  the 
general  tendency  was  in  the  line  of  real  progress. 

Let  it  be  fairly  considered  by  all  concerned,  es- 
pecially by  the  people  of  the  South,  that  Northern 
money,  given  by  private  individuals,  by  hundreds 
of  thousands  of  Christian  men  and  women,  has,  for 
the  most  part,  founded  and  sustained  these  great 
enterprises  for  the  elevation  of  the  African  race  in 
this  country.  I,  for  one,  have  considered  these 
things,  and  regret  many  prejudices  I  once  indulged 
that  were  not  justified  by  even  the  follies  and  blun- 
ders that  have  been  sufficiently  alluded  to.  I  go 


170  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

further  ;  many  of  us  of  the  South  have  not  taken 
the  right  pains  to  inform  ourselves  of  the  work 
that  was  being  done  in  sight  of  us.  Not  long  ago, 
one  of  the  best-informed  men  in  Georgia,  a  cultured 
reader  of  reviews  and  magazines  and  advanced 
books,  said  to  me  that  he  did  not  know  till  Jan- 
uary, 1 88 1,  that  there  was  such  an  institution  as 
the  Atlanta  University.  He  knew  that  there  was 
something  in  that  city  of  that  name  that  received 
money  from  the  State,  but  its  grade,  character,  ap- 
pointments, history,  he  knew  nothing  of. 

A  little  detail  may  be  useful  in  stating  some  of 
the  work  done  by  Northern  Christians  for  our  col- 
ored people.  Among  the  chief  of  the  societies  at 
work  in  the  South  for  the  help  of  the  colored  peo- 
ple is  the  "  American  Missionary  Association."  It 
is  the  work  of  the  Congregational  Church,  and  the 
people  who  back  this  society  are,  for  the  most  part, 
the  people  who  back  the  "  American  Board  of  For- 
eign Missions."  (Let  this  be  considered  ;  the  work 
of  that  Board  is  an  important  part  of  the  history  of 
Christianity  in  this  century.)  This  "  American  Mis- 
sionary Association  "  is  carrying  on  8  chartered  in- 
stitutions;  12  high  and  normal  schools;  and  24 
common  schools,  in  the  South.  In  all  of  them  are 
7,207  pupils,  taught  by  163  teachers.  The  secreta- 
ries think  that  at  least  150,000  scholars  have  been 
taught,  more  or  less,  by  the  pupils  educated  in 
these  high  schools  and  colleges.  This  work  costs 


Some  Work  Good  People  are  Doing.  171 

money — a  great  deal  of  it.  Saying  nothing  of  the 
hundreds  of  thousands  invested  in  buildings  and 
school  property,  the  work  of  the  society  in  the  South 
costs  considerably  more  than  $100,000  a  year. 

Some  ignorant  people  "  pooh-pooh  "  this  sort  of 
work.  They  are  the  people  who  have  reason  to 
fear  that  the  negro  will  get  ahead. 

Some  of  the  buildings  used  in  these  schools  rank 
with  the  best  in  the  South.  The  Atlanta  Univer- 
sity is  now  using  two  splendid  brick  buildings ;  an- 
other, costing  $40,000,  is  soon  to  be  built  between 
them.  They  have  a  far  better  library  than  most  of 
the  white  colleges  of  the  South  have,  and  the  library 
has  an  endowment  of  $5,000,  given  by  R.  R.  Graves, 
Esq.,  the  liberal  New  Yorker,  who  gave  them  most 
of  their  4,000  or  5,000  volumes.  How  many  South- 
ern white  colleges  have  endowments  for  their 
libraries  ? 

Some  may  doubt  of  the  work  they  do.  The  State 
Board  of  Examiners,  appointed  by  the  governor  of 
Georgia,  say,  in  their  published  reports,  that  the 
work  is  done  thoroughly.  And  so  it  is.  The  stud- 
ies are  well  graded,  the  majority  of  the  pupils 
being  in  the  normal  course.  In  the  regular  college 
courses  were  twenty-six  last  year,  six  being  in  the 
senior  class.  What  do  they  study?  I  copy  the 
curriculum  taken  from  the  Catalogue  for  1880,  for 
which  thanks  are  due  President  Ware.  This  course 
speaks  for  itself. 


172  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

COLLEGE  COURSE. 

For  admission    to  this   course,   pupils  must    have   passed 
through  the  College  Preparatory  Course,  or  its  equivalent. 
The  degree  of  B.  A.  is  given  to  graduates  from  this  course. 

FRESHMAN   YEAR. 

GREEK — Xenophon's  Cyropasdia,  Owen;  Homer's  Odyssey, 
Merry;  Grammar,  Hadley. 

LATIN — Livy,  Chase;  De  Senectute  et  de  Amicitia,  Crowell; 
Grammar  and  Composition,  Harkness;  Greek  and  Roman 
Antiquities,  Bojesen. 

MATHEMATICS— Algebra,  Peck;  Plane  Geometry,  Brad- 
bury. 

SOPHOMORE    YEAR. 

GREEK — Select  Orations  of  Demosthenes,  Tyler;  Prome- 
theus of  jCschylus,  Woolsey.  First  and  Second  Terms. 

LATIN— Odes  of  Horace,  Chase;  Tacitus,  Tyler.  First 
and  Second  Terms. 

ENGLISH — Literature,  Oilman  with  authors.  Second  and 
Third  Terms. 

MATHEMATICS— Solid  and  Spherical  Geometry,  Bradbury; 
Trigonometry  and  Surveying,  Bradbury. 

JUNIOR    YEAR. 

GREEK-— Gorgias  of  Plato,  Woolsey.     Third  Term. 

LATIN—  Cicero's  Tusculan  Disputations,  Chase.  Second 
Term. 

R  H  ETO  R I C — Hill. 

SCIENCE— Natural  Philosophy.  Peck's  Ganot;  Astronomy, 
Lockyers ;  Chemistry,  Steele ;  Geology,  Dana. 

NATURAL  THEOLOGY— Chadbourne. 

SENIOR    YEAR. 

MENTAL  PHILOSOPHY— Porter. 

LoG\C—Jevons. 

MORAL  PHILOSOPHY— Fairchild. 


Some   Work  Good  People  are  Doing.         173 

EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY — Hopkins. 
ESTHETICS — Lectures  on  the  History  of  Art. 
POLITICAL    PHILOSOPHY — Political   Economy,  Wayland / 
Civil  Liberty  and  Self  Government,  Leiber. 
HISTORY — History  of  Civilization,  Guizot. 


The  normal  course  is  formed  to  "meet  the  im- 
mediate demand  for  teachers,"  and  is  well  adapted 
to  this  end. 

I  observe  in  the  Catalogue  that  most  of  the  grad- 
uates of  past  years  are  put  down  as  teachers. 
What  dividends  on  the  investment — large  as  it  is ! 
Who  can  estimate  the  work  of  these  teachers? 
Mr.  B.  M.  Zettler,  former  school  superintendent  in 
Macon,  Georgia,  bears  emphatic  testimony  to  their 
efficiency. 

The  Atlanta  University,  I  am  informed,  is  not 
beyond  other  schools  of  similar  grade  under  the 
care  of  the  Society.  Fisk  University,  Nashville, 
represents  much  money,  much  brains,  and  much 
good  work.  Its  grade  is  high ;  its  work  good. 
And  so  of  many  others.  Let  us  bear  in  mind,  too, 
that  among  the  trustees  and  patrons  of  this  great 
benevolence  are  hundreds  among  the  foremost 
'Christian  names  in  America,  many  of  them  honored 
throughout  the  Christian  world. 

"The  Freedmen's  Aid  Society"  is  the  child  of 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church.  I  quote  here 
from  the  "  Thirteenth  Annual  Report,"  Rev.  Dr.  R. 
S.  Rust,  Secretary: 


174  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

"  The  Society  has  aided  in  the  establishment 
and  support  of  the  following  schools,  six  of  which 
have  been  legally  chartered,  with  collegiate 
powers : 

"CHARTERED  INSTITUTIONS. — Central  Tennes- 
see College,  Nashville,  Tenn. ;  Clark  University,  At- 
lanta, Ga. ;  Claflin  University,  Orangeburgh,  S.  C. ; 
New  Orleans  University,  New  Orleans,  La.;  Shaw 
University,  Holly  Springs,  Miss.;  Wiley  University, 
Marshall,  Texas — 6. 

"  THEOLOGICAL  SCHOOLS. — Centenary  Biblical 
Institute,  Baltimore,  Md.;  Baker  Institute,  Orange- 
burgh,  S.  C. ;  Thomson  Biblical  Institute,  New  Or- 
leans, La. — 3. 

"  MEDICAL  COLLEGE. — Meharry  Medical  College, 
Nashville,  Tenn. —  I. 

"  INSTITUTIONS  NOT  CHARTERED.  —  Bennett 
Seminary,  Greensboro',  N.  C. ;  Cookman  Institute, 
Jacksonville,  Fla. ;  Dadeville  Seminary,  Dadeville, 
Ala.;  Haven  Normal  School,  Waynesborough,  Ga.; 
La  Grange  Seminary,  La  Grange,  Ga. ;  Meridian 
Academy,  Meridian,  Miss. ;  Rust  Normal  School, 
Huntsville,  Ala. ;  Walden  Seminary,  Little  Rock, 
Ark. ;  West  Texas  Conference  Seminary,  Austin,' 
Texas ;  West  Tennessee  Seminary,  Macon,  Ten- 
nessee— 10. 

"  In  these  institutions  the  number  of  pupils 
taught  during  the  year  is  classified  as  follows : 

"  Biblical,  372  ;   law,  23  ;    medical,  85  ;    collegiate, 


Some  Work  Good  People  are  Doing.         175 

90;  academic,  220;  normal,  1,100;  intermediate, 
217;  primary,  832.  Total,  2,490. 

"  Number  of  pupils  taught  in  our  schools,  63,000 ; 
number  taught  by  our  pupils,  more  than  550,000. 
Amount  of  permanent  school  property,  more  than 
$250,000.  Number  of  teachers  employed  this  year, 
eighty." 

This  Society  has  expended  in  this  work,  during 
thirteen  years,  $893,918  46.  Nearly  every  dollar 
came  from  the  North, 

As  to  the  character  of  the  work  done  by  the 
schools  under  the  care  of  the  "  Freedmen's  Aid 
Society,"  it  ranks  with  the  best  at  work  in  this 
field.  I  have  read  all  the  thirteen  reports ;  the  re- 
ports improve  as  fast  as  the  schools.  The  orators 
have  nearly  ceased  to  denounce  slavery ;  they  are 
now,  at  the  anniversaries,  beginning  to  discuss  right 
vigorously  and  wisely  the  negro's  freedom.  But 
there  is  still  some  margin  for  "  sweetness  and  light." 
At  the  last  anniversary  meeting  Bishop  H.  W, 
Warren  made  an  eloquent  address,  from  which  I 
take  the  following  extracts : 

"  The  key-note  of  the  present  condition  of  our 
work  in  the  South  is  given  in  the  following  fact : 

"On  the  1 6th  of  October,  1880,  Ex-Governor 
Brown,  of  Georgia,  now  United  States  Senator, 
stood  on  the  platform  of  the  new  building  for  Clark 
University,  in  Atlanta,  and  publicly  gave  thanks  to 
the  representatives  of  the  North  for  the  aid  given 


176  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

the  South  in  the  matter  of  education.  Before  him 
was  a  throng  of  colored  people.  They  were  sons 
and  daughters  of  a  race  that  for  the  first  time  stood 
facing  the  sunrise.  Their  countenances  glowed 
with  the  light  of  a  new  morning.  The  sun  that 
was  about  to  rise  lighted  the  sky  with  an  aurora 
of  hope  soon  to  brighten  into  an  immortal  day. 
Beside  him  were  three  other  governors  of  Georgia, 
the  school  commissioner  of  the  State,  and  repre- 
sentatives of  the  enterprise  and  intelligence  of  that 
swiftly  rising  commonwealth.  On  the  same  plat- 
form were  the  professors,  who  had  gone  forth  in 
the  true  missionary  spirit  from  pleasant  homes  and 
friends  beloved  to  take  up  a  work  genial  only  to 
those  who  were  filled  with  the  spirit  of  Him  who 
left  the  glory  of  heaven  for  the  shame  of  earth, 
who,  though  rich,  became  poor  that  we  through  his 
poverty  might  become  rich.  Behind  him  were  four 
Bishops,  one  of  the  blood  of  the  race  to  be  bene- 
fited, and  three  representatives  of  a  great  Church 
of  Christ,  that  had  been  pouring  out  its  men  and 
its  money  to  aid  in  bringing  light  to  those  who  sat 
in  darkness  and  the  shadow  of  intellectual  and 
moral  death.  They  were  there  in  a  moment  of  vic- 
tory to  lift  up  the  banner,  to  raise  the  shout,  and 
then  hasten  on  to  the  achievement  of  new  victories. 
It  was  in  such  a  presence  that  Senator  Brown  said, 
in  effect :  '  I  want  to  publicly  thank  you  men  of  the 
North  for  doine  what  we  were  not  able  to  do.  We 


Some  Work  Good  People  are  Doing.          177 

are  too  poor.  But  it  needed  to  be  done.  You  have 
done  it.  Its  results  are  apparent  to-day.  I  thank 
you,  and  pray  you  to  continue  your  help.' 

"  It  was  one  of  the  sublimest  moments  of  his  life. 
He  was  permitted  to  speak  for  millions  and  to  mill- 
ions. He  voiced  the  crying  needs  of  multitudes 
who  could  not  speak  for  themselves,  who  did  not 
even  know  the  depths  of  their  need.  But  he,  who 
had  himself  come  up  from  lowly  conditions  by  he- 
roic struggles,  spoke  the  unutterable  thanks  of  the 
lowly  as  they  saw  themselves  rising  to  sublimer 
heights  of  being.  He  also  spoke  to  millions  of 
helpers  who  had  previously  heard  few  voices  of 
approval  for  their  work  save  those  of  their  friends, 
their  consciences,  and  their  God.  Few  men  ever 
speak  to  so  many,  speak  for  so  many,  and  with  such 
appreciation  on  both  sides.  It  was  well  and  wisely 
spoken." 

The  "American  Baptist  Home  Mission"  is  one 
of  the  vigorous  workers  among  the  colored  people 
of  the  South. 

Sidney  Root,  Esq.,  of  Atlanta,  Georgia,  a  citizen 
of  that  city  long  before  the  war,  held  in  deserved 
honor  as  a  broad-minded,  cultivated  Christian  man, 
is  one  of  the  trustees  of  "  Roberts  College,"  an  in- 
stitution founded  and  carried  on  by  the  "  Baptist 
Home  Mission,"  whose  head-quarters  are  in  New 
York.  The  wisdom  of  the  society  in  electing  Mr. 

Root  one  of  its  trustees  is  to  be  commended.     He 
12 


178  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

is  an  honor  to  Vermont,  the  State  of  his  nativity, 
and  to  Georgia,  the  State  of  his  adoption.  I  asked 
him  to  prepare  me  a  statement  of  the  work  done 
by  the  "  Baptist  Home  Mission."  I  give  his  an- 
swer in  full : 

"ATLANTA,  GA.,  Feb.  5,  1881. 

"  A.  G.  HAYGOOD,  D.D. ; 

44  MY  DEAR  SIR :  By  a  note  from  our  secretary 
(Rev.  H.  L.  Morehouse,  D.D.)  I  learn  that  the 
'  American  Baptist  Home  Mission '  of  New  York 
has  expended  something  over  $200,000  for  build- 
ings, for  educational  purposes  among  the  colored 
people  of  the  South  ;  about  $300,000  for  salaries ; 
and  about  $300,000  for  current  expenses  and  for 
'  beneficiary  students.'  These  sums,  together  with 
amounts  contributed  for  permanent  endowment, 
represent  an  aggregate  of  about  $1,000,000  contrib- 
uted through  the  Society  for  educational  (includ- 
ing theological  and  normal)  instruction  among  the 
freedmen.  The  management  of  the  several  insti- 
tutions has  generally  been  committed  to  Southern 
people.  The  institutions  are — 

Pupils  in  1880. 

"  Wayland,  Washington,  D.  C 93 

Richmond,  Richmond,  Va 92 

Shaw,  Raleigh,  N.  C 277 

Benedict,  Columbia,  S.  C 140 

Roberts,  Atlanta,  Ga 100 

Leland,  New  Orleans,  La 144 

Natchez,  Natchez,  Miss 113 

Nashville,  Nashville,  Tenn 232 

Total 1,191 


Some  Work  Good  People  are  Doing.          179 

"  There  is  now  an  institution  in  Selma,  Alabama, 
with  260  students,  partly  supported  by  the  Board ; 
and  one  at  Live  Oak,  Florida,  the  number  of  stu- 
dents not  reported. 

"  The  Secretary  writes  me  that  he  will  soon  pre- 
pare a  table  showing  the  number  of  students  edu- 
cated in  the  higher  studies,  and  their  occupation  as 
far  as  known  to  date.  You  will  observe,  however, 
that,  including  Selma  and  Live  Oak,  there  are  about 
1,500  students  being  educated  as  preachers  and 
teachers  among  the  colored  people,  through  the 
agency  of  the  Baptist  Home  Missionary  Society. 

"  An  excellent  Medical  College  has  recently  been 
founded  in  connection  with  Shaw  University,  Ra- 
leigh, N.  C.,  by  a  daughter  of  Mr.  Estey,  the  organ 
builder.  I  think  as  the  matter  is  managed  [  Mr. 
Root's  italics]  a  vast  amount  of  good  must  result, 
and  I  believe  you  will  agree  with  me. 

"Sincerely,  S.  ROOT." 

The  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  over  and  above 
its  great  educational  work  among  the  negroes,  has 
done  incalculable  good  in  their  uplifting  through  its 
Church  Extension  Society,  that  has  aided  them  in 
building  many  churches,  and  through  its  Missionary 
Society,  that  has  helped  them  to  sustain  them.  Its 
money  expenditures  in  these  directions  have  gone 
beyond  a  million  of  dollars. 

From  the  senior  Secretary,  Rev.  Dr.  A.  J.  Kynett, 


i8o  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK, 

I  have  the  following  facts:  From  1865  to  Jan- 
uary I,  1 88 1,  the  Society  donated  for  building 
churches,  in  round  numbers,  $830,000.  Of  the 
whole  amount,  not  less  than  $350,000  have  been 
expended  in  the  Southern  States,  and  of  the 
$350,000  nearly  $200,000  have  been  used  for  the 
benefit  of  the  colored  people.  Of  their  "  loan 
fund  " — used  only  in  loans — less  than  $200,000  have 
been  in  use  in  the  Southern  States,  and  of  this 
amount,  about  $50,000  among  the  colored  people. 
The  Society  has  aided  3,068  churches  throughout 
the  country;  of  the  whole  number,  about  1,600  are 
in  the  Southern  States,  and  of  the  1,600,  not  less 
than  1,000  are  for  the  use  of  the  colored  people. 

Other  Churches,  whose  reports  are  not  available, 
have  done  much  good.  And  many  thousands  of 
dollars  have  been  given  by  benevolent  individuals, 
whose  benefactions  do  not  appear  in  any  published 
statistics.  No  doubt  they  are  recorded  where  they 
will  never  be  forgotten. 

The  Presbyterians  (of  the  North  for  the  most 
part)  have  done  a  great  work  in  the  education  of 
the  negroes.  Mr.  Eaton  reports  for  them,  two  nor- 
mal schools  in  the  South ;  three  "  institutions  for 
secondary  instruction  ;  "  one  university,  the  Biddle, 
located  at  Charlotte,  North  Carolina,  and  one  at 
Oxford,  Pennsylvania.  The  Episcopalians  have 
established  two  normal  schools  and  seven  schools 
for  "  secondary  instruction."  The  Friends  have 


Some  Work  Good  People  are  Doing.         181 

one  important  institution  in  East  Tennessee.  The 
Roman  Catholics  have  a  school  for  colored  people 
in  Baltimore. 

For  myself  I  have  reached  a  conclusion  about  this 
educational  work  among  the  negroes  of  the  South  ; 
it  is  God's  work.  Errors  and  mistakes  being  allowed, 
the  main  facts  abide. ^  Here  is  a  small  army  of  de- 
voted men  and  women  teaching  these  poor  negroes. 
Millions  of  dollars  have  been  invested  in  the  work  ; 
also  millions  of  prayers.  I  have  studied  their 
reports,  have  looked  into  some  of  their  schools,  and 
have  examined  no  little  of  their  work ;  it  is  full  of 
hope  and  cheerful  prophecy.  It  is  high  time  that 
those  who  are  trying  to  do  good  should  have  knowl- 
edge of  each  other.  Then  they  would  help  each 
other.  These  men  and  women  of  the  North  who 
are  in  the  South  teaching  the  negroes  could  do  a 
great  deal  more  good  if  we  of  the  South,  men  and 
women,  would  do  our  full  duty  to  them.  If,  when 
they  know  us,  we  "improve  on  acquaintance"  as 
much  as  some  of  them  have  improved  on  acquaintance 
after  being  once  known  by  us,  then  in  the  next 
generation,  if  not  before,  there  will  be  mutual  ad- 
miration, with  much  hejping  of  one  another  in  every 
good  work.  And  it  will  be  to  the  peace  of  men  and 
the  glory  of  God.  Will  not  this  be  better  than 
mutual  suspicions,  heart-burnings,  and  other  such 
"  works  of  the  devil  ?  " 


1 82  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

THE  NEGRO  AS  A  MEMBER  OF  THE  COMMUNITY. 

WISE  men,  who  wish  the  negro  well  and  who 
have  the  best  interests  of  the  country  at 
heart,  will  not  confine  their  attention  to  his  voting.  It 
seems  to  me, as  heretofore  intimated,  that  his  import- 
ance as  a  voter  has  been  greatly  exaggerated,  much 
to  his  hurt.  I  say  this  not  because  he  is  a  negro, 
but  upon  the  general  principle  that  the  man  is  of 
more  consequence  than  the  voter.  Voting  is  not 
the  main  business  of  life  ;  determining  elections  is 
not  the  chief  end  of  a  man,  whether  of  a  black  or 
of  a  white  man.  He  not  only  has  other  duties  and 
functions  to  perform,  but  others  more  important. 
A  citizen  does  not  render  his  greatest  service  to 
society  by  the  act  of  depositing  a  ballot,  but  by  his 
right  living.  What  is  he  ?  What  does  he  do  ?  Is 
he  a  producer?  Does  he  add  any  value,  material, 
intellectual,  or  moral,  to  th<i  resources  of  his  com- 
munity and  of  the  country?  Is  his  personal  influ- 
ence good  ?  Is  his  family  life  a  salt-savor  among 
his  children  and  neighbors?  Is  the  man  as  well  as 
the  voter  what  he  ought  to  be  ? 

If  we  must  stick  on  this  ballot  question,  then  I 


The  Negro  as  a  Member  of 'the  Community.    183 

have  this  to  say,  a  man's  real  value  in  politics  depends 
upon  his  value  in  the  community.  Voting  is,  in- 
deed, important,  but  it  is  incidental.  A  man  votes, 
we  will  suppose,  two  or  three  times  a  year,  or  often- 
er,  as  the  case  may  be.  But  he  is  a  member  of  the 
community  three  hundred  and  sixty-five  days  in  the 
year.  Now,  what  is  he  in  the  community  ?  Is 
his  influence,  whether  it  be  great  or  small,  on  the 
right  side  of  morals  and  progress  ?  This  aspect  of 
the  question  no  thoughtful  person  can  overlook,  or 
undervalue.  For  it  is  real,  practical,  abiding. 

The  negro  is  a  neighbor.  Perhaps  there  is  little 
or  no  intercourse  between  the  cabin  and  the  man- 
sion, or  between  the  cabin  and  the  cottage,  or 
even  between  two  cabins,  a  white  family  in  one  and 
a  colored  family  in  the  other.  (But  I  do  think 
there  is  more  intercourse  between  "  mansion  "  and 
"  cabin"  in  the  South  than  between  "  brown-stone 
front  "  and  "  garret  "  in  the  great  cities.)  But  the 
negro  is  a  neighbor  all  the  same,  and,  by  his  very 
existence  and  presence,  a  power  for  good  or  evil. 
If  we  leave  the  higher  considerations  of  duty,  and 
find  the  lowest  place  for  our  argument — the  self-in- 
terest, the  mere  convenience  and  comfort,  of  the 
dominant  race — it  is  important  that  this  negro,  this 
humblest  member  of  the  community,  be  a  good 
man,  a  man  of  right  views,  sentiments,  habits,  and 
associations.  It  is  important  to  both  races  that 
their  relations  be  not  only  friendly  but  mutually 


1 84  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

helpful  and  affectionate.  If  this  negro  be  a  bad 
man,  with  false  views,  corrupt  sentiments,  vicious 
habits,  and  evil  associations,  he  is  a  constant  menace 
to  peace  and  good  order.  Neither  more  nor  less  a 
menace  on  account  of  his  color,  but  a  menace  on  ac- 
count of  his  character. 

In  what  ways,  now,  can  we  of  the  white  race  help 
cur  colored  neighbor  to  be  what  he  ought  to  be  as 
a  member  of  the  community?  The  answer  cannot 
be  given  in  detail ;  no  rules  can  comprehend  such  a 
subject.  Much  depends  on  circumstances  of  time 
and  place,  as  of  persons.  Of  one  thing  we  may  be 
sure — it  is  not  in  the  power  of  legislatures,  state  or 
national,  to  define  the  class  of  relations  and  duties 
I  am  writing  of,  nor  to  secure  the  results  that  right- 
minded  people  believe  to  be  so  necessary  to  the 
well-being  of  society.  Social  problems  were  never 
solved  by  legislation  or  authority;  it  is  not  in  the 
nature  of  things  that  they  should  be  solved  by 
mere  power  or  mere  law.  I  am  not  unmindful  of 
the  value  and  need  of  good  laws,  of  laws  that  de- 
fend and  protect  men  in  all  their  rights  ;  that  en- 
courage, and,  in  so  far  as  it  is  possible,  secure  the 
fullest  development  of  the  best  powers  that  are  in 
human  nature.  But  I  am  now  speaking  of  these 
relations  in  life  that  are  of  necessity  more  or  less 
beyond  the  reach  of  human  laws  and  their  sanctions  ; 
of  relations  in  which  each  man  must  be  more  or  less 
a  law  unto  himself. 


The  Negro  as  a  Member  of  the  Community.    185 

I  propose  this  question  to  myself:  How  must  I, 
a  white  man,  and  my  neighbor,  Daniel  Martin,  a 
black  man,  treat  each  other?  He  is  my  neighbor 
living  with  his  family  near  me  ;  he  is  my  friend  also, 
in  whom  I  can  trust ;  more,  he  has  been  a  servant 
in  my  household  for  six  full  years.  Daniel  is  a 
citizen  ;  more  than  that,  he  is  a  man  ;  the  law  made 
him  a  citizen,  God  made  him  a  man.  I  am  as  much 
bound  by  eternal  righteousness  to  deal  fairly  with 
Daniel  Martin  in  all  things,  as  with  the  worthy  man 
and  cultured  Christian  minister  whose  garden  joins 
mine.  And,  let  it  not  be  overlooked,  Daniel  Mar- 
tin is  as  much  bound  as  I  am  to  deal  righteously  in 
all  the  relations  that  bind  us  together.  I  may, 
because  I  have  larger  opportunity,  owe  more  duty 
to  him  than  he  owes  to  me,  but  the  nature  of  the 
obligation  is  the  same. 

Does  any  man  with  a  particle  of  sense  suppose 
that  any  law  can  provide  for  all  the  relations  that 
exist  between  Daniel  Martin  and  me  ?  Divine  law 
never  proceeds  upon  this  sort  of  literalism  in  statu- 
tory enactment,  that  every  possible  duty  must  be 
named  and  weighed  and  timed  and  measured. 
When  human  law  makes  the  attempt  it  fails  always. 
The  infinitely  varied  adjustments  of  human  life 
make  mere  statutory  solutions  of  such  questions 
impossible.  And  there  is  another  reason  besides 
the  endless  variety  of  occasions  and  circumstances ; 
if  it  were  possible  to  provide  for  every  duty  by 


1 86  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

statute,  there  would  be  no  place  left  for  our.  per- 
sonal development  in  good  conscience  and  moral 
life. 

If  mere  laws  cannot  guide  and  restrain  Daniel 
Martin  and  me,  (and  both  of  us  need  guidance  and 
restraint,)  how  are  we  to  manage  our  seemingly 
difficult  case?  Here  is  our  first  mistake;  it  is  not 
a  difficult  case  at  all,  except  we  make' it  so  by  want 
of  sense  and  of  a  good  conscience.  There  is  no 
trouble  whatever,  provided  we  two  men  have  the 
right  spirit  in  our  hearts ;  provided,  also,  that  we 
have  good  sense  in  our  heads.  Daniel  and  I  have 
just  one  thing  to  do;  we  must  plant  ourselves  square- 
ly and  sincerely  on  the  "  Sermon  on  the  Mount."  On 
this  basis  we  will  get  on  with  little  thought  or  need 
of  outside  help  to  the  end  of  a  long  chapter. 

In  the  course  of  time  Daniel  and  I  will  have 
various  business  relations.  (There  is  no  discount, 
be  it  observed,  in  the  matter  of  "  caste  "  for  busi- 
ness connections.  "  Business  is  business,"  unless  it 
be  in  teaching  his  children  to  read  !)  I  want  Dan- 
iel's muscle,  his  experience  in  a  line  of  things,  and 
his  integrity;  he  wants  my  money,  my  confidence, 
my  friendship,  and  now  and  then  when  he  "  gets  in 
a  pinch,"  a  little  "  advance,"  or  other  extra  help. 
Some  day  he  will  have  something  to  sell  that  I 
wish  to  buy ;  I  will  have  something  to  sell  that  he 
wishes  to  buy ;  and  so  on  to  the  end  of  our  natur- 
al lives.  How  are  we  to  manage?  Just  as  two 


The  Negro  as  a  Member  of  the  Community.     1 87 

white  men  who  wish  to  do  right  would  do;  just  as 
two  black  men  who  wish  to  do  right  would  do. 
We  are  each  to  do  in  all  our  dealings  with  each 
other  the  fair  and  honest  thing.  This  is  all  there 
is  in  it.  With  this  difference,  if  I  wrong  him,  tak- 
ing advantage  of  his  ignorance,  or  weakness,  or 
dependence,  of  any  thing  peculiar  to  his  condition 
that  gives  me  the  advantage  of  him,  I  am  all  the 
viler  for  using  my  advantage  unrighteously.  It  is 
doubly  mean  for  the  white  man  to  wrong  a  negro. 
And  this  is  recognized  broadly  in  the  proverbial 
phrase  by  which  some  superlatively  despicable  per- 
son is  described  in  all  parts  of  the  South  :  "He'is 
mean  enough  to  cheat  a  negro." 

"  But,"  says  the  irrepressible  one,  be  he  Northern 
or  Southern,  "  how  about  the  social  question  ? " 
This  question  indicates  a  sort  of  hysteria.  But  if  you 
must  be  answered,  it  is  easy:  Daniel  Martin  never 
asks  any  thing  of  me  as  to  social  life  that  I  am  not 
willing  to  give.  I  respect  him  in  his  place  ;  he 
respects  me  in  my  place.  He  is  master  in  his 
house,  (except  when  his  wife  gets  the  upper  hand,) 
I  am  master  in  mine,  (all  exceptions  understood.) 
No  test  that  brought  embarrassment  to  me  or  mor- 
tification to  him  ever  occurred,  or  ever  will.  Wise 
people  never  make  these  issues ;  they  do  not  come 
up  spontaneously,  not  once  in  a  thousand  times. 
In  his  capacity  as  servant,  Daniel  Martin  will  make 
fires,  clean  shoes,  and  do  other  such  things.  Were 


i88  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

I  living  in  New  York  or  London,  and  Daniel  were 
what  he  is,  or  any  other  man  in  similar  relations 
to  me,  I  should  expect  him  to  do  the  same  things, 
so  long  as  they  are  included  in  our  bargain,  and  he 
is  paid  for  his  work.  But  I  do  not  ask  him  to  sit 
at  the  table  with  my  guests,  or  to  entertain  com- 
pany in  the  parlor  after  tea.  He  does  not  wish 
such  association.  Ask  him.  He  has  just  about  the 
same  social  recognition  in  my  house  that  a  man  of 
all  work  has  in  other  decent  and  well-ordered 
households. 

There  never  was  a  subject  so  much  discussed  that 
has  so  little  in  it,  except  it  may  be  the  invention  of 
perpetual  motion.  It  gives  no  trouble  to  either 
race  when  let  alone.  People  of  good  sense,  good 
breeding,  and  of  unmeddlesome  -temper,  do  let  it 
alone. 

Let  us  consider,  as  they  are  related  to  our  pres- 
ent argument,  the  whole  class  of  negroes  in  a  com- 
munity. Owing  to  their  antecedents,  (and  let  us 
remember  the  antecedents  that  are  back  of  Ameri- 
can slavery,  antecedents  that  carry  our  thoughts 
back  to  the  huts  and  kraals  of  Africa,)  and  owing 
also  to  their  present  circumstances,  there  are  some 
lines  in  which  they  need  special  instruction,  train- 
ing, encouragement,  building  up.  I  may  indicate 
some  of  them,  too  obvious  to  need  elaborate  dis- 
cussion. I  must  teach  the  negro  to  respect  my 
rights ;  I  do  this  best  by  respecting  his.  I  must 


The  Negro  as.  a  Member  of  the  Community.    189 

teach  him  to  respect  and  keep  his  contracts ;  to  do 
this  I  must  respect  and  keep  mine.  I  must  teach 
him  to  obey  law  and  to  respect  authority  ;  to  do  this 
I  must  set  him  the  example.  I  must  teach  him  to 
"  rule  well  his  own  house ;  "  to  do  this  I  must  show 
him,  not  simply  teach  him,  how.  I  must  teach  him 
to  speak  the  truth ;  to  do  this  I  must  speak  the 
truth  to  him.  I  must  teach  him  honesty  ;  to  do 
this  I  must  be  honest.  I  must  teach  him  purity 
in  his  own  life  and  in  all  his  family  relations ;  to  do 
this  I  must  let  him  see  that  I  respect  and  keep  the 
law  of  chastity.  I  must  teach  him  the  sin  and  ruin 
of  drunkenness ;  to  do  this  I  must  keep  the  demon 
from  my  own  lips  and  from  my  house.  I  must 
teach  him  the  sanctity  of  a  freeman's  ballot ;  to  do 
this  I  must  myself  vote  as  an  honest  man  upon  my 
conscience,  only  for  good  men,  only  for  good  meas- 
ures, neither  buying  nor  selling  votes,  nor  cheat- 
ing in  any  way,  by  terror,  by  violence,  by  "  ballot 
stuffing,"  by  false  counting,  by  false  returns,  or  by 
any  method  known  to  demagogues  of  any  land  or 
race. 

Some  duties  and  virtues  need  emphatic,  distinct, 
repeated,  and  careful  statement  in  my  efforts  to  do 
him  good.  For  example :  The  negro  race  in  the 
South  I  know,  and  every-where  else  I  suppose, 
needs  building  up  in  all  the  sanctities  of  family  life. 
Their  slave  history  was  not  favorable  to  the  devel- 
opment of  right  views  and  sentiments  on  this  sub- 


190  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

ject ;  it  was  very  unfavorable  to  it.  Nor  was  slav- 
ery favorable  to  the  virtue  of  the  white  race  ;  it  was 
far  otherwise.  It  was  a  great  shame  and  sin  that 
the  law  did  not  recognize  their  marriage  relations ; 
that  it  not  only  did  not  protect  them  from  arbitrary 
separations,  but  that  it  did  not  forbid  them  volun- 
tary separations.  The  old  system  worked  badly 
for  the  negro,  as  to  his  conceptions  of  the  dignity 
and  sanctity  of  marriage  in  two  directions.  First, 
it  did  not  forbid  masters  to  separate  husband  and 
wife.  Once  in  my  life  I  saw  a  husband  and  wife  "sold 
apart."  It  was  long  ago,  in  my  childhood ;  it  froze 
my  soul  with  horror.  But  let  the  truth  be  spoken 
in  justice  to  the  old  masters ;  the  great  majority  of 
them  would  not  separate  husbands  and  wives ; 
there  was  a  strdng  sentiment  against  it ;  and  the 
professional  "  negro-trader  "  was  a  man  whose  busi- 
ness was  against  all  the  sentiments  of  the  better 
class  of  people ;  to  many  he  was  simply  odious. 
Second,  the  old  system  operated  badly  in  not  com- 
pelling them  to  keep  their  marriage  contracts. 
This  was  really  worse  for  their  morals  than  separa- 
tion by  sale  or  other  form  of  force.  Their  ideal  of 
marriage  might  have  been  elevated  if  separations 
had  occurred  only  by  outside  and  arbitrary  power ; 
it  could  not  be  much  elevated  when  the  law  allowed 
them  to  follow  their  own  whims  and  affinities. 

But  there  was  among  them,  in  the  days  of  slavery, 
and  is  to-day,  a  much  higher  average  of  conviction, 


The  Negro  as  a  Member  of  the  Community.     191 

sentiment,  and  practice  in  their  marriage  relations 
than  hasty  observers  or  careless  generalizers  have 
supposed.  Many  writers,  arguing  from  the  want  of 
law  to  prevent  masters  from  separating  husbands 
and  wives,  and  the  want  of  law  to  compel  them  to 
keep  their  own  contracts,  have  concluded  that  there 
was  no  marriage  among  them  worth  the  name. 
This  is  a  mistake  and  an  injustice  both  to  the  ex- 
master  and  to  the  ex-slave.  The  one  was  not  so 
heartless,  the  other  not  so  debased,  as  has  been  as- 
sumed. For,  i,  as  has  been  stated,  the  majority  of 
masters  did  not  separate  husbands  and  wives; 
2,  natural  affection,  religious  principle,  and  the  ex- 
ample of  the  white  people,  (there  was  hardly  a  di- 
vorce in  the  South  till  after  the  war,)  went  far  to 
counteract  in  their  own  minds  the  tendency  to 
"  easy  divorce." 

Nevertheless,  much  of  right  teaching  and  train- 
ing remains  to  be  imparted.  Many  Southern  peo- 
ple are  truly  awake  to  this.  Moreover,  the  civil  law 
enters  their  family  life  now.  Their  marriages  must 
have  the  sanction  of  law;  their  infidelities  are 
punishable  by  law.  Granted  that  the  law  is  not 
always  enforced  for  marital  infidelities,  yet  it  is  oft- 
en enforced,  and  its  tremendous  educating  power 
has  fairly  begun  to  show  its  benign  influence.  If 
now  the  Southern  people  only  have  sense  and  prin- 
ciple enough  to  keep  out  of  their  statute  books  the 
"  easy  "  and  unscriptural  divorce  laws  that  have  al- 


192  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

ready  brought  such  harvests  of  shame  and  crime  to 
some  other  sections  of  our  country,  another  genera- 
tion will  witness  vast  amendment  among  the  ne- 
groes in  their  conjugal  and  family  life.  But  Heav- 
en save  us  from  these  divorce  laws  that,  in  some 
States,  have  allowed  one  divorce  to  every  fourteen 
marriages  !  Such  laws  are  hardly  as  good  conserva- 
tors of  marriage  as  was  slavery  itself.* 

If  we  of  the  South  are  to  make  progress  with 
our  problem,  if  we  are  to  become  the  people  Provi- 
dence designs  us  to  be,  if  we  are  to  do  our  duty 
to  God  and  man,  then  let  us  understand  distinctly, 
once  and  for  all,  that  in  the  administration  of  law 
the  negroes  shall  receive,  not  only  in  theory  but  in 
practice,  fair  dealing  and  justice.  And  this  princi- 
ple must  assert  itself  in  every  court  and  in  all  mat- 
ters that  are  brought  into  court.  In  theory  we 
have  one  law  for  both  races ;  the  practice  must  be 
according  to  the  theory.  When  the  court  says, 
Make  the  negro  pay  his  debt,  let  it  say  also,  The 
^X'hite  man  must  pay  his  debt.  Let  the  same  law 
be  applied  in  all  criminal  prosecutions.  The  law 
does  not  know  color  or  condition  in  its  definitions ; 
the  administrators  of  law  should  not  know  color. 
A  crime  that  should  imprison  or  hang  a  negro 
should  imprison  or  hang  a  white  man.  When  some 

t\vo   years   ago  f  a   white    man,  ,  of   Floyd 

County,   Georgia,  was  hung   for  the   murder  of  a 
*  See  note  at  end  of  chapter.  f  Written  in  1881, 


The  Negro  as  a  Member  of  the  Community.    193 

negro,  it  was  a  contribution  to  right  sentiment  and 
good  morals  in  the  whole  State." 

This  is  every  man's  question  and  every  woman's 
question,  for  the  right  administration  of  law  de- 
pends largely  upon  public  sentiment.  It  is  a  sort 
of  maxim  that  a  law  greatly  in  advance  of  public 
opinion  cannot  be  enforced.  Therefore  I  say  this, 
it  is  every  one's  question.  What  each  man  and 
woman  thinks  on  these  subjects  has  much  to  do 
with  the  administration  of  justice. 

I  am  not  one  of  those  who  count  it  patriotic  to 
deny  what  enemies  or  prejudiced  critics  charge 
upon  us,  if  the  facts  are  against  us.  I  do  not  feel 
called  on  to  go  into  any  comparative  statistics  of 
crime  in  the  different  sections  of  our  country.  But 
this  I  do  know,  whatever  may  be  true  of  other 
sections,  there  is  a  disgraceful  and  appalling  amount 
of  crimes  against  life  in  the  South.  Human  life  is 
held  cheap.  No  honest  and  informed  man  will  deny 
it.  Murders  are  frightfully  frequent,  acquittals  are 
ruinously  common.  There  is  but  one  remedy,  the 
prompt,  certain,  rigid,  and  impartial  enforcement  of 
our  excellent  laws. 

Let  us  remember  always,  we  must  base  all  our 
instructions  and  regulate  all  our  dealings,  with  the 
black  man  as  with  the  white  man,  upon  the  eternal 
principles  of  righteousness  which  are  laid  down  in 
the  word  of  God.  The  negro's  ethical  education, 

as  must   be   the  white  man's,   if  it   is  to  form  his 
18 


194  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

character  and  control  his  life,  must  be  according  to 
the  truth  as  it  is  in  the  Holy  Scriptures.  Dr.  An- 
drew Peabody  has  truly  said  in  one  place,  "  The 
Bible  is  the  educator  of  civilized  man." 

If  white  people  and  black  people  wish  to  know 
how  to  treat  each  other  in  all  the  relations  of  life, 
let  them  study  the  Bible.  Take,  for  example,  the 
business  relations  of  life,  the  old  question  of  capital 
and  labor,  of  service  and  wages.  For  the  settle- 
ment of  all  questions  that  grow  out  of  these  rela- 
tions the  laws  laid  down  and  the  principles  taught 
in  the  Bible  are  worth  all  the  "political  econo- 
mies" in  the  world.  They  apply  to  all  races 
and  conditions  of  men,  in  all  countries  and  in  all 
times.  They  are  as  needful  and  useful  in  New  En- 
gland factories  as  on  Southern  plantations.  Free 
-negroes  are  not  the  only  underlings  in  the  world, 
negro  servants  are  not  the  only  hirelings.  There 
are  thousands  of  factory  operatives,  day  laborers, 
domestic  servants,  mechanics,  sewing  women,  clerks, 
apprentices,  and  such  like,  whose  cry  for  justice 
against  oppression  goes  up  to  heaven  by  day  and 
by  night.  "  For  which  things  sake,"  in  all  lands, 
"  the  wrath  of  God  is  come  upon  the  children  of 
disobedience."  Let  us  here  recall  some  of  these 
half-forgotten  laws ;  they  must  do  us  all  good.  I 
know  they  are  needed  in  the  South;  I  am  per- 
suaded that  they  are  needed  wherever  there  are 
masters  .and  servants. 


The  Negro  as  a  Member  of  tJie  Community.    195 

A  few  passages  will  answer  here;  a  reference 
Bible  will  show  others  plenty.  "  Thou  shalt  not 
defraud  thy  neighbor,  neither  rob  him :  the  wages 
of  him  that  is  hired  shall  not  abide  with  thee 
all  night  until  the  morning."  Servants  must  be 
paid  according  to  the  promise  of  the  bargain, 
their  wages  are  their  all ;  to  hold  them  back  be- 
cause they  are  helpless  is  both  tyranny  and  rob- 
bery. Here  is  another  law  of  God  in  Moses; 
"  Thou  shalt  not  oppress  a  hired  servant  that  is 
poor  and  needy,  whether  he  be  of  thy  brethren,  or 
of  thy  strangers  that  are  in  thy  land  within  thy 
gates :  at  his  day  thou  shalt  give  him  his  hire, 
neither  shall  the  sun  go  down  upon  it ;  for  he  is 
poor,  and  setteth  his  heart  upon  it :  lest  he  cry 
against  thee  unto  the  Lord,  and  it  be  sin  unto 
thee."  God  forbids  not  robbing  only,  but  oppres- 
sion also ;  the  poor  hireling  must  not  be  ground 
down  to  a  starvation  price  for  his  sweat  and  mus- 
cle. Prophecy  pronounced  its  v/oe  upon  such  op- 
pressors of  men  :  "  Woe  unto  him  that  buildeth  his 
house  by  unrighteousness,  and  his  chambers  by 
wrong ;  that  useth  his  neighbor's  service  without 
wages,  and  giveth  him  not  for  his  work."  The  last 
of  t,he  prophets  threatens  vengeance  against  the  op- 
pressor of  hirelings,  and  grades  him  with  the  basest 
of  criminals.  "  And  I  will  come  near  to  you  to 
judgment ;  and  I  will  be  a  swift  witness  against  the 
sorcerers,  and  against  the  adulterers,  and  against 


196  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

false  swearers,  and  against  those  that  oppress  the 
hireling  in  his  wages,  the  widow,  and  the  fatherless, 
and  that  turn  aside  the  stranger  from  his  right,  and 
fear  not  me,  saith  the  Lord  of  hosts."  St.  Paul 
lays  down  broadly  the  principle  that  covers  all 
cases :  "  Masters,  give  unto  your  servants  that  which 
is  just  and  equal ;  knowing  that  ye  also  have  a 
Master  in  heaven."  St.  James  pierces  the  very 
marrow  of  all  oppressors  of  laborers  and  of  the 
helpless :  "  Behold,  the  hire  of  laborers  who  have 
reaped  down  your  fields,  which  is  of  you  kept  back 
by  fraud,  crieth  :  and  the  cries  of  them  which  have 
reaped  are  entered  into  the  ears  of  the  Lord  of 
Sabaoth."  And  this  Lord  of  Sabaoth  saith,  "  Ven- 
geance is  mine  ;  I  will  repay." 

There  are  some  legal  claims  which,  according  to 
God's  law,  cannot  be  enforced  by  a  good  man. 
For  instance,  and  it  covers  many  cases,  "  No  man 
shall  take  the  nether  or  the  upper  millstone  to 
pledge:  for  he  taketh  a  man's  life  to  pledge." 
Debts  should  be  paid  ;  over-exemption  by  law  puts 
a  premium  on  dishonesty ;  but  the  rich  man,  the 
well-to-do  man,  who  strips  the  poor  neighbor  down 
to  his  skin  for  a  debt  is  loathesomely  mean. 

That  servants  and  hirelings  should  render  faithfully 
the  service  due  from  them  is  taught  with  equal  clear- 
ness. This  principle  covers  every  case,  the  highest 
and  the  lowest,  of  what  is  due  from  the  servant, 
from  the  one  working  for  wages  :  "  Servants,  be 


The  Negro  as  a  Member  of  the  Community.    1 97 

obedient  to  them  that  are  your  masters  according 
to  the  flesh,  with  fear  and  trembling,  in  singleness 
of  your  heart,  as  unto  Christ ;  not  with  eye-serv- 
ice, as  men-pleasers ;  but  as  the  servants  of  Christ, 
doing  the  will  of  God  from  the  heart ;  with  good 
will  doing  service,  as  to  the  Lord,  and  not  to 
men." 

For  masters  and  servants,  for  employers  and 
employes,  for  capitalists  and  laborers,  God's  word 
lays  down  plain  and  unmistakable  principles  that 
will  conserve  all  the  true  interests  of  all  men.  But 
it  is  noteworthy  that  more  is  said  to  the  master 
than  to  the  servant ;  perhaps  because  the  very 
weakness  and  dependence  of  the  servant  is  some 
protection  against  the  temptation  to  neglect  his 
work — he  must.  But  power  in  all  its  forms  is  ex- 
posed to  nearly  all  possible  forms  of  temptation. 
And  God,  who  knows  the  heart,  gives  most  warn- 
ings to  those  who  need  them  most. 

If  we  will  keep  these  laws,  interpreting  and  ap- 
plying them  in  the  spirit  of  the  Sermon  on  the 
Mount,  the  problem  is  solved.  Outside  the  prin- 
ciples of  these  laws  and  the  spirit  of  the  Gospel 
there  is  no  solution  now  or  henceforth.  The  sooner 
we  understand  this  the  better  for  all  concerned. 
To  a  class  of  persons,  to  some  calling  themselves 
"  publicists,"  "  political  economists,"  "  philosoph- 
ers," and  to  a  class  of  so-called  "reformers,"  and  to 
"  doctrinaires "  of  every  breed,  these  notions  may 


198  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

seem  to  be  antiquated.  So  with  some  persons 
Bible  morality  is  antiquated.  But  the  Bible,  after 
all,  gives  us  the  true  principles  of  sociology.  'Hu- 
man society  cannot  exist,  or  go  on  at  its  best,  or  at 
any  thing  in  a  thousand  leagues  of  its  best,  on  any 
other  basis  than  that  which  is  laid  down  in  the 
book  which  has  given  to  us  all  in  our  civilization 
that  is  better  than  paganism. 

NOTE. — As  a  solemn  warning  to  our  law-makers  to  stand  by  the 
word  of  God  in  this  matter  of  divorce,  I  quote  some  statements 
made  in  Tremont  Temple,  Boston,  Massachusetts,  January  24,  1881, 
by  the  Rev.  Samuel  W.  Dike,  of  Royalton,  Vermont,  who  delivered 
a  notable  lecture  on  "Facts  as  to  Divorce  in  New  England."  Mr. 
Dike's  lecture  was  one  of  "  The  Boston  Monday  Lectures."  After 
giving  a  detailed  history  of  divorce  and  of  divorce  laws  in  each  of 
the  New  England  States,  the  lecturer  said:  "If,  now,  we  sum  up 
for  New  England,  there  were  in  the  year  of  grace  1878,  in  Maine, 
437  divorces,  in  all  but  one  county  ;  in  New  Hampshire,  241  ;  in 
Vermont,  197  ;  in  Massachusetts,  600  ;  in  Connecticut,  401  ;  and  in 
Rhode  Island,  196 :  making  a  total  of  2,072,  with  one  county  (An- 
droscoggin,  Me.)  unreported,  and  a  larger  ratio  in  proportion  to  the 
population  than  in  France  in  the  days  of  the  Revolution.  In  France 
the  ratio  of  separation  to  marriages  latterly  is  about  I  to  150;  in 
Belgium,  of  divorce  to  marriages,  I  to  270,  with  a  few  separations ; 
and  in  England,  of  petitions  for  both  divorce  and  separation,  I  to 
300.  On  the  basis  of  population  by  the  present  census,  there  was  I 
divorce  to  every  819  inhabitants  in  Maine  ;  I  to  about  820  in  Penob- 
scot  County,  the  seat  of  a  theological  seminar)';  I  to  every  1,443 
in  New  Hampshire;  I  to  every  1,687  in  Vermont;  i  to  every  2,973 
in  Massachusetts;  I  to  every  1,553  m  Connecticut;  and  I  to  every 
1,411  in  Rhode  Island.  But  no  State  is  likely  to  have  a  larger 
divorce  rate  than  Massachusetts,  unless  the  laws  and  discussion 
speedily  check  the  evil.  But  the  Catholic  marriages  are,  in  four 
States,  27  per  cent,  of  the  whole.  Assuming,  what  is  very  nearly 
true,  that  there  are  no  divorces  among  these,  the  ratio  of  divorces 
to  marriages  among  Protestants  is  I  to  11.7  for  the  four  States 


The  Negro  as  a  Member  of  the  Community.     199 

together ;  it  being  I  to  15  in  Massachusetts,  I  to  13  in  Vermont,  i  to 
9  in  Rhode  Island,  and  I  in  less  than  8  in  Connecticut. 

"But  what  of  divorce  in  the  West  ?  Has  not  this  practice,  in 
going  West  with  the  New  Englander,  run  into  greater  extremes  ? 
Few  States,  if  any,  west  of  Ohio  collect  statistics  of  divorce.  In 
Ohio  the  ratio  for  many  years  averaged  I  to  25,  and  now  it  is  about 
I  to  18.  Indiana  has  changed  her  laws  for  the  better ;  while  Illi- 
nois has,  it  is  said,  adopted  better  forms  of  procedure.  No  city  has 
had  a  worse  reputation  in  divorce  than  Chicago.  Yet  the  records  of 
Cook  County,  with  a  population  of  about  600,000,  for  the  five  years, 
1875-1879,  show  a  ratio  of  divorce  suits  begun  to  marriage  licenses 
taken  out  of  i  to  9.4.  But  for  the  year  1875  it  was  found  that  one 
fifth  of  the  petitions  heard  were  denied.  Making  this  allowance — 
and  the  more  strict  practice  of  later  years  fully  justified  it — the 
ratio  becomes  I  to  12.  Chicago  is  not  as  bad  as  Hartford  or  New 
Haven." 


200  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

THE  NEGRO  AND  THE  LAND. 

T  T  NFORTUNATELY  for  all,  the  rich  and  the 
**-'  poor,  the  powers  that  be  began  thinking  seri- 
ously on  the  "land  question"  in  Ireland  a  few  cent- 
uries too  late  for  their  peace.  Had  they  known 
two  or  three  hundred  years  ago  what  they  know 
to-day,  they  would  have  managed  better.  Then 
might  there  have  been  a  "lengthening  of  their  tran- 
quillity." Is  it  not  the  part  of  wisdom  for  the 
people  of  the  South — may  be  the  question  might 
be  widened  in  its  application — to  take  this  "  land 
question"  in  hand  while  it  is  still  manageable  ? 

It  is  not  a  subject  to  be  dismissed  with  a  sneer 
or  a  snarl.  Sneers  and  snarls  never  change  facts. 
Here  are  two  facts:  i.  There  are  now  over  six 
millions  of  negroes  in  the  Southern  States.  They 
will  some  day  be  ten  millions,  and  many  more ;  the 
mass  of  them  are  here  to  stay.  2.  They  do  and  they 
will,  of  necessity,  sustain  some  relation  to  the  land. 

If  we  begin  in  time,  and  employ  good  sense,  we 
of  the  present  generation  may  do  much  to  make 
their  relation  to  the  land  a  useful  and  happy  one. 
On  the  other  hand,  if  we  wait  too  long — missing 


The  Negro  and  the  Land.  201 

our  best  opportunities — and  act  foolishly,  we  will 
hand  down  to  our  children  an  inheritance  of  em- 
barrassments, burdens,  and  troubles  without  end. 

We  have  been  dealing,  in  a  tentative  sort  of  way, 
for  fifteen  years  with  the  questions  that  grew  out 
of  emancipation,  but  we  have  done  next  to  nothing 
toward  a  satisfactory  adjustment  of  the  relation  of 
the  freedmen  to  the  land.  Some  do  not  seem  to 
know  that  there  are  relations  to  be  adjusted — they 
just  go  on  the  same  way,  from  year  to  year,  till 
they  die.  Axle-deep  in  ruts,  they  neither  learn  nor 
forget. 

As  a  rule  each  year  among  us  is  experimental. 
As  a  class  the  land  owners  of  the  South  have  ab- 
solutely no  defined  policy.  Every  year  we  make  a 
sort  of  "  trial  trip."  Possibly  all  this  experiment- 
ing has  been  for  the  best ;  certainly  it  could  not  be 
otherwise.  We  had  to  learn— whites  and  blacks 
alike.  Neither  the  land  owners  nor  the  negroes 
could  take  any  other  land  system  bodily  and  trans- 
fer it  to  Southern  fields.  The  English  system,  even 
if  it  suited  the  English,  might  fail  utterly  in  the 
South — a  large,  thinly-settled  country  of  cheap 
lands,  with  two  races  so  singularly  related  in  their 
past  history  and  present  connections.  No  system 
of  any  country  was  based  on  natural  or  social  con- 
ditions like  those  of  the  Southern  people.  It  was 
our  equation — never  yet  "  worked  out ;  "  we  could 
not  "  copy  "  from  another's  slate ;  there  were  un- 


202  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

known  quantities  many.  The  time  element  was 
necessary ;  there  was  nothing  we  could  do  but 
make  experiments  to  find  out  what  best  suited  us. 

But  has  not  this  tentative  work  gone  on  long 
enough?  Is  it  not  time  to  look  beyond  the  coming 
Christmas?  I  ardently  wish  to  keep  to  facts,  and 
I  will  not  affirm,  but  I  express  the  opinion,  that 
there  are  not  in  my  county  ten  landlords  or  ten 
tenants,  white  or  black,  who  have  any  "  understand- 
ing " — to  say  nothing  of  a  "  contract  " — that  goes 
further  than  the  end  of  this  present  year;  and  this 
county  is  much  like  the  rest.  There  may  be  some 
tenants  who  expect  to  stay  where  they  are  next 
year ;  hardly  any  even  think  about  the  third  year ; 
but  "  contracts"  are  "  for  the  next  crop." 

There  are  several  varieties  of  landlord.  There 
are  the  "  planters,"  as  they  are  called,  who  own 
large  bodies  of  land,  some  few  owning  several  plan- 
tations. For  instance,  a  gentleman  was  in  my 
office  the  second  week  in  January,  whose  family 
residence  is  in  Atlanta,  Georgia.  He  owns,  per- 
haps, half  a  dozen  plantations — two  or  three  in 
Alabama  ;  he  has  lands  in  Stewart,  also  in  Ran- 
dolph, County  in  this  State.  Some  of  the  large 
land  owners,  as,  for  instance,  a  most  successful 
planter  in  Hancock  County,  Georgia,  live  upon 
their  plantations.  This  gentleman  owns  thousands 
of  acres,  renting  them  to  a  small  army  of  ten- 
ants, some  white  and  some  black.  There  is  a  very 


The  Negro  and  the  Land.  203 

large  class  of  "  farmers  "  owning  from  a  few  hun- 
dred to  a  thousand  acres.  These,  as  a  rule,  cultivate 
part  of  their  land  with  hired  labor  and  rent  part  to 
tenants.  White  and  black  tenants  "  take  land  "  on 
the  same  basis.  Three  plans,  with  unimportant 
exceptions,  cover  the  entire  tenant  system  among 
us.  i.  Some  lands  are  worked  by  tenants  who  pay 
"a  fixed  sum."  Thus:  A.  rents,  for  the  year,  a 
field,  or  fields,  to  B.,  for  so  much  money,  B.  taking 
the  chances  of  the  crop.  It  is  nearly  always  "  a 
lumping  trade ; "  that  is,  B.  does  not  pay  so  much 
per  acre,  but  so  much  for  the  whole.  2.  Lands  are 
rented  for  part  of  the  crop.  In  Georgia  the  tenant 
generally  pays  the  landlord  "  one  third  of  the  corn  " 
and  "  one  fourth  of  the  cotton."  3.  Some  combine 
the  plans.  There  are  many  modifications  growing 
out  of  side  issues  ;  as  "  fixing  fences,"  "  clearing 
lands,"  "furnishing  fertilizers,"  "making  advances," 
and  many  other  such  matters.  And,  as  all  must 
see,  the  greater  the  number  of  modifications,  the 
larger  the  margin,  and  the  more  numerous  the  oc- 
casions for  misunderstandings  when  final  settlements 
are  made.  But  in  any  case,  with  the  fewest  pos- 
sible exceptions,  it  is  "  a  one-year"  system  through 
and  through.  It  all  has  to  be  gone  over  and  con- 
tracted about  at  the  beginning  of  each  year. 

The  "  lease  "  system  has  hardly  been  tried  at 
all ;  it  is  practically  unknown  among  us.  It  is,  per- 
haps, true  that  hitherto  the  conditions  of  this  whole 


204  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

question  have  made  it  impracticable  to  make  long 
contracts  or  leases.  But  id  this  sort  of  thing — this 
everlasting  flux— this  annual  change  (or  at  best 
renewal,  optional  with  both  parties)  of  landlords 
and  tenants,  to  go  on  always  ?  Then,  year  by  year, 
our  difficulties  and  embarrassments  will  increase. 
As  it  seems  to  me,  if  there  is  no  help  for  it,  there  is 
no  help  for  us — whether  this  "us"  means  tenants 
or  landlords. 

Is  it  not  time  to  study  "leases"  —  long  leases? 
If  a  planter  is  afraid  to  commit  himself  too  far, 
might  he  not,  while  holding  on  to  this  "  year-by- 
year  "  plan  of  renting  as  to  a  portion  of  his  lands, 
try  a  long  lease  on  another  portion,  that  he  may 
make  a  fair  comparison  of  methods  ?  People  learn 
by  trying  experiments. 

Is  it  not  reasonably  certain  that  a  judicious  lease 
system  would,  in  the  long  run,  be  better  for  both 
parties  to  this  question  ?  This  one-year  system 
puts  both  parties  in  a  position  that  landlord  and 
tenant  ought  never  to  occupy ;  namely,  to  give  as 
little  and  get  as  much  as  possible,  but  without 
reference  to  that  which  is  vital  to  the  money  inter- 
ests of  both — the  improvement  of  the  farm.  Let 
us  see  whether  this  is  an  overstatement. 

I.  A.  rents  B.  for  this  year  fifty  acres,  we  will 
say,  for  one  thir.d  of  the  corn  and  one  fourth  of 
the  cotton.  B.  lays  all  his  plans  as  to  this  field  for 
this  year.  His  thought  is,  I  will  get  out  of  it  all 


The  Negro  and  tJie  Land.  205 

I  can,  I  will  put  on  it  as  little  as  possible,  so  as  to 
save  myself  this  year.  He  begins  late  and  hurries 
through  his  year's  work,  so  as  to  save,  for  outside 
jobs,  all  the  time  he  can.  Saving  time  is  good,  if 
it  be  not  taken  from  the  right  care  and  culture  of 
the  land.  The  tenant's  motive  to  make  the  land 
permanently  better  is,  by  this  one-year  plan,  re- 
duced to  the  lowest  possible  force ;  in  many  cases 
it  is  obliterated.  An  example  occurred  under  my 
observation  last  year.  A  colored  man  owned  a  small 
field  and  rented,  for  one  year  only,  another.  He 
repaired  his  own  fences ;  he  did  not  touch  the 
fences  of  the  rented  field,  except  to  patch  just 
enough  to  "  turn  stock."  Now,  that  fence  patched 
and  not  mended  wont  turn  stock.  On  his  own 
lands  he  used  stable  manure,  looking  to  the  second 
year  for  part  of  its  benefit ;  on  the  rented  land  he 
employed  guano,  because  he  believed  he  would  get 
all  its  benefit  the  first  year.  On  the  one-year  plan 
the  tenant  does  nothing  he  can  help  doing.  He  has 
little  motive  to  take  care  of  the  place,  except  so  far 
as  maybe  necessary  to  secure  his  part  of  the  year's 
crop.  Drainage  is  neglected,  fences  are  half  mended, 
nothing  is  done  for  the  real  and  permanent  better- 
ment of  the  land.  This  annual  change  destroys  all 
healthful  motive  to  substantial  improvement  of  soil 
or  premises. 

2.  The   very   fact   of  making   contracts  year  by 
year  introduces  a  feverish  restlessness  that  is  alien  to 


206  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

the  best  agricultural  life.  The  tenant  is  on  the  con- 
stant lookout  for  a  change,  taking  often  the  barest 
chances  for  bettering  his  condition.  Many  of  them 
spend  enough  time  place-hunting  to  make  a  poor 
place  desirable. 

3.  Under  this  one-year   plan   the   landlord  has 
little  motive  to  make  permanent  and  valuable  im- 
provements.    He  knows  not  who  will  come   next 
year,  and  feels  no  security  that  his  improvements 
will  be  cared  for. 

4.  It  creates,  as  has  been  intimated,   unnatural 
relations   between  landlord  and  tenant.      Each  is 
looking  out  for  himself,  and  neither  has  any  business 
interest  in  the  other  beyond  the  end  of  the  year. 

There  are  seeming  exceptions  to  the  foregoing 
statements  concerning  the  prevalence  of  the  one-year 
system,  as  in  many  cases  where  tenants  or  hired  hands 
remain  for  a  number  of  years,  annually  renewing  their 
contracts.  This  is  only  better  than  an  actual  move 
and  change  each  year,  but  it  does  not  secure,  as  is 
obvious,  the  benefit  of  a  long  occupancy  provided 
for  in  the  contract.  In  the  "  state  of  mind,"  rest- 
le^s,  uncertain,  and  more  or  less  suspicious,  that  has 
prevailed  with  our  people,  both  with  whites  and 
negroes,  for  a  number  of  years,  it  may  well  be  ad- 
mitted that  these  year-by-year  arrangements  were 
all  that  were  practicable.  Very  well ;  but  what 
about  the  next  decade,  the  next  generation,  the 
next  hundred  years?  Surely  no  one  who  has  in- 


The  Negro  and  the  Land.  207 

formed  himself  on  these  subjects  in  the  history  of 
other  nations,  or  who  can  look  straight  at  disagree- 
able facts  which  involve  himself,  will  undertake  to 
justify  on  grounds  of  sound  economy  our  present 
uncertain  and  wasteful  system. 

Let  me  ask  if  it  be  profitable  to  rent  a  farm  to  a 
freedman  for  one  year  for  so  much  money,  or  for 
a  part  of  the  crop,  why  will  it  not  be  more  profita- 
ble to  rent  it  to  him  for  ten  years,  at  a  somewhat 
lower  rate  ?  Would  the  landlord  not  realize  more 
on  a  ten-years'  lease  to  a  proper  tenent  at  one  fifth 
of  the  crop  than  at  one  third  paid  by  the  same 
tenant  during  the  ten  years  on  an  annually  renewed 
rent  contract,  where  neither  party  looks  beyond 
"  next  Christmas  ?"  If  not,  why  not  ?  It  seems  to 
me  that  in  such  a  test  of  methods  one  fifth  would 
turn  out  more  than  one  third.*  The  ten-years' 

*  Improved  lands  and  better  tillage  would  avoid  a  dilemma  in 
which  an  old  negro  of  our  village  found  himself  a  number  of  years 
ago.  He  was  a  long  time  the  servant  of  the  Rev.  John  W.  Talley,  a 
venerable  superannuated  preacher  of  the  South  Georgia  Conference, 
of  the  Southern  Methodist  Church.  His  name  was  William,  and  he, 
too,  was  a  preacher.  He  stood  on  his  dignity  beyond  most  of  his 
race,  and  would  introduce  himself  to  strangers  after  this  fashion  : 
"  Mornin',  sah  ;  I  am  the  Rev.  William  Talley,  sah."  His  face 
was  a  study,  particularly  the  mouth,  which  was  over-size.  That  in- 
describable "  set  "  which  so  often  shows  itself  in  the  lips  of  colored 
preachers — and  of  some  white  preachers,  too — was  in  the  Rev.  Will- 
iam a  striking  part  of  the  countenance.  It  comes  through  cultivat- 
ing solemnity  of  expression,  not  from  a  hypocritical  tendency,  but 
from  the  belief  that  it  is  "  the  way  to  do,"  if  one  would  be  thought 
vety  pious.  During  the  last  year  of  the  war,  standing  in  the  pas- 


208  OUR  BROTHER  ix  BLACK. 

lease  would,  at  least,  offer  the  tenant  some  induce- 
ment to  improve  the  farm  ;  the  one-year  plan  only 
makes  it  to  his  interest  to  squeeze  out  of  it  all  he 
can.  The  rule  as  stated  is  to  put  nothing  on  that 
he  cannot  get  off  by  Christmas.  He  does  not  drain, 
he  does  not  make  a  good  fence,  he  does  not  plant  a 
tree,  he  does  not  plow  for  next  year's  crop,  he 
does  not  permanently  enrich  the  lands  ;  he  does 
nothing  in  the  world  he  can  help  doing,  except  as  it 
effects  the  crop  in  hand.  A  sensible,  and  therefore 
just,  lease  system  would  save  to  the  South  millions 
of  dollars  now  paid  out  every  year  for  "  commercial 
fertilizers,"  in  which  there  has  perhaps  been  as 
much  downright  swindling  as  in  any  business  ever 
carried  on  among  men.  On  our  one-year  plan  of 
renting  lands  "  guano  "  is  necessary  ;  there  must  be 
quick  returns  and  the  tenant  wants  it  all  returned  ; 
on  a  long-lease  plan  the  more  natural  and  perma- 
nent methods  of  fertilization  would,  beyond  ques- 
tion, be  adopted,  because  it  would  be  to  the 
interests  of  all  to  adopt  it.  And  in  due  course  of 

senger  depot  in  Atlanta  one  day,  I  heard  a  wicked  fellow  say,  "  I'll 
bet  a  dollar  that  old  darky  is  a  preacher;  I  know  by  his  mouth." 

On  one  occasion  the  old  man  was  sent  to  '"haul  in"  the  corn 
crop  from  a  little  field  his  master  had  rented  for  "  the  third."  The 
old  fellow  was  perfectly  honest,  though  not  up  in  arithmetic.  It 
turned  out  that  the  little  field  yielded  but  two  loads.  Old  William 
put  both  loads  in  his  master's  crib,  and  reported  to  the  astonished 
landlord  as  follows,  "  Dare  is  no  third,  sah,  de  land  am  too  pore  U 
perduce  de  third,  sah."  It  was  not  a  bad  commentary  on  our  very 
primitive,  hand-to-mouth  system  of  annual  renting. 


The  Negro  and  the  Land.  209 

time  it  would  come  to  pass  in  the  South,  as  in 
other  countries  well  tilled,  the  longer  a  field  is  cul- 
tivated the  more  productive  it  becomes.  As  things 
have  been  with  us,  men  in  buying  or  renting  lands 
are  influenced  in  their  judgment  very  much  as  they 
are  in  buying  a  horse — the  older  he  is  the  less  he  is 
worth. 

It  is  surely  time  that  our  people  began  to  study 
the  lease  systems  of  other  countries ;  it  is  time  to 
begin  experiments  for  ourselves;  in  due  time  we 
will  develop  a  system  suited  to  our  wants.  Some 
day  there  will  be,  it  is  to  be  hoped,  an  end  of  this 
"  crop-to-crop  "  method  of  farming ;  leases  for  nine- 
ty and  nine  years  will  yet  be  made  of  Southern 
lands. 

In  concluding  on  this  point  it  may  be  remarked 
that  a  long  lease  is  itself  a  conservative  influence. 
The  longer  the  lease  the  less  of  a  "  tramp  "  does 
the  tenant  become.  It  not  only  settles  him  down 
to  systematic,  intelligent  work,  but  it  tends  to  deliv- 
er him  from  the  systemless  and  thriftless  style  of 
living  that  characterizes  the  man  who  only  does 
"jobs  "as  he  can  pick  them  up  from  day  to  day, 
and  that  shows  itself  in  the  life  of  the  man  and  the 
family  that  always  expects  to  "  move  at  the  end  of 
the  year." 

For  a  long  time,  many  of  the  negroes,  perhaps 
the  majority  of  them,  will  be  hirelings;  at  most, 

tenants.     So  will  ,be  rnany  white  men.     There  never 
14 


2io  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

was  a  country  where  all  were  fitted  to  be  proprie- 
tors, even  of  very  small  "  holdings."  And  for  the 
reason  it  is  not  in  them  to  "  hold  "  any  thing ;  they 
have  no  grip.  If  every  negro  family  (so  far  as  the 
general  truth  is  concerned  the  adjective  may  be 
dropped)  were  to  begin  this  year  with  the  mythical 
"  forty  acres  and  a  mule,  and  a  year's  supply  of  pro- 
visions," or  with  any  other  similar  outfit  for  inde- 
pendent life  as  small  proprietors,  it  would  not  be 
long  before  a  great  multitude  would  be  landless  and 
knocking  at  the  doors  of  better  managers  for  em- 
ployment. But  many  negroes  are  fitted  to  be  land- 
owners, as  well  as  long  tenants,  and  they  will  be  if 
the  chance  be  given  them.  And  it  is  sound  policy 
to  give  them  the  chance — the  chance  to  buy  and 
pay  for  and  own  farms  suitable  to  them. 

A  farm  worth  buying  is  good  enough  to  pay  for 
itself  in  a  few  years,  if  it  is  in  the  hands  of  a  man 
fit  to  own  it.  I  believe  that,  on  many  accounts,  it 
is  desirable  that  a  large  number  of  negroes  should 
become  land-owners.  In  looking  into  this  subject, 
it  will  hinder  clearness  of  judgment  if  we  raise,  pre- 
maturely, the  question,  If  many  of  them  become 
land  owners,  where  are  planters  to  get  labor  ? 
For  this  discussion  concerns  not  the  planter  alone, 
but  the  whole  frame-work  of  our  Southern  system. 
This  is  not  a  question  of  what  is  to  the  convenience 
or  interests  of  a  few  thousand  planters,  but  of  what 
is  to  the  interests  of  several  millions  of  people.  I 


The  Negro  and  the  Land.  211 

have  no  prejudice  against  that  small  and  diminish- 
ing class  known  as  "  planters,"  as  distinguished  from 
"  farmers."  I  have  no  reason  to  have.  Many  of 
my  best  personal  friends  are  among  them.  But 
the  welfare  of  the  whole  people  is  a  more  important 
matter  than  the  welfare  of  a  few  men. 

Moreover,  as  I  think,  my  friend,  planter  A.,  is 
unnecessarily  alarmed  about  his  future  labor ;  surely 
it  is  not  necessary  that  the  many  should  be  kept 
landless  that  the  few  may  secure  laborers.* 

There  are  several  things  planter  A.  may  consider 
to  abate  his  alarm,  i.  There  will  always  be  a  great 
multitude  of  landless  people.  Not  before  the  mil- 
lennium will  all  families  have  homes  of  their  own. 

2.  Good  wages  always  attracts  labor.  But  if 
planter  A.  should  fail  of  getting  negro  labor  to  suit 
his  views,  there  are  still  open  doors  of  deliverance 
for  him.  He  may,  (i,)  as  most  landlords  do  in 
older  countries,  give  long  leases  to  worthy  tenants ; 
or,  (2,)  look  to  other  labor ;  or,  (3,)  if  nothing  can  be 
done,  he  can  sell  out.  For,  if  it  come  to  this,  it 
is  better  there  should  be  no  great  planters  than 
that  there  should  be  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
landless  people  re-enforcing  year  by  year  the  army 
of  tramps  and  criminals. 

*  If  it  be  said,  "  A  few  men  own  the  land  in  England,"  I  answer, 
Yes  ;  but  their  long-lease  system  largely  satisfies  the  land-owning 
instinct  of  their  tenants.  On  our  year-by-year  system  they  could  not 
hold  their  land,  with  a  crowded,  clamorous  population  around 
them  ;  and  they  do  not  feel  over-secure  as  it  is. 


212  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

Some  of  the  benefits  that  would  accrue  to  the 
whole  people,  to  the  State,  if  a  large  number  of 
negro  families  should  become  the  owners  of  their  own 

o 

farms,  I  suggest.  There  are  others  of  importance 
that  will  suggest  themselves  to  the  reader — some, 
no  doubt,  that  have  not  occurred  to  me. 

1.  Owning  land  tends  to  foster,  the  virtues  that 
make  a  people  happy,  strong,  and  prosperous.     It 
encourages   industry   and   promotes   economy.     It 
furnishes  the  right  soil  for  all  those  affections  and  sen- 
timents that  are  the  life  and  soul  of  homes.    The  one- 
year  tenant  has  the  poorest  chance  to  make  a  home  ; 
the  long-lease  tenant  is  in  far  better  case ;  the  land 
owner,  although  of  only  a  very  small  "  parcel  of 
ground,"  is  in  the  best  case  of  all.     The  best  homes 
grow  out  of  ownership  of  the  soil. 

2.  Owning  land  makes  people,  of  whatever  color, 
more    conservative.     This   has   always   been   true. 
The  wisest  of  the  Romans  understood  this.  .  Land- 
owners are  almost  entirely  removed  from  the  influ- 
ences of  communism.     Mobs  are  not  made  up  of 
land-owners.     The  ownership  of  an  acre  and  a  cab- 
in makes  a  man  think  twice  before  taking  part  in  a 
riot.      Is  it  not  to  be  considered  that  six  millions 
of  landless  people,  moving,  most  of  them,  every  year, 
are  in   position    to  be    influenced   by  the   fanatics 
and  desperadoes  that  break  out  now  and  then  in 
some  of  our  cities? 

3.  Land-owners  feel   an   interest  in  government 


The  Negro  and  the  Land.  213 

beyond  their  mere  chance  at  its  disbursements. 
The  land-owner,  although  of  but  few  acres,  is  con- 
cerned about  the  income  as  well  as  the  outgo  of 
public  money;  he  is  concerned  in  the  question  of 
taxation.  While  planter  A.  is  nursing  his  unneces- 
sary fears  about  a  lack  of  labor,  should  a  goodly 
number  of  negroes  become  small  proprietors,  would 
it  not  be  well  for  him  to  think  of  the  possibilities  of 
his  being  taxed  out  of  his  great  estates  ?  The  land- 
less are  always  tempted  to  overtax  proprietors ;  and 
there  are  always  demagogues  plenty  to  speculate  on 
this  tendency.  If  we  should  live  to  see  ten  million 
negroes  in  the  South,  (our  children  will,)  and  nearly 
all  of  them  landless,  and  among  them  two  millions 
of  voters,  we  will  see  a  very  unhealthful,  not  to  say, 
dangerous,  state  of  things.  In  such  a  case  all  land- 
owners and  property  owners  of  every  class  are  at 
the  mercy  of  the  landless  multitudes,  who  are  practi- 
cally irresponsible  to  reason,  in  that  their  poverty  ex- 
empts them  from  taxation  and  their  unreasoning  in- 
stinct puts  the  blame  of  their  poverty  on  the  rich 
minority.  We  may  not  wait  two  generations  to 
realize  these  dangers  ;  they  may  not  be  far  off;  there 
are  now  premonitory  tremors  in  the  ground.  The 
negro  vote  in  the  South,  in  a  number  of  States  at  least, 
has  been  divided  once  by  Southern  men.  Many  do  not 
see  the  significance  of  this.  Yet  there  are  dema- 
•gogues  enough  to  use  all  the  instincts  of  this  once- 
divided  black  vote  to  turn  the  scale  in  many  elections. 


2i4  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

But  if  among  the  ten  millions  of  negroes  who  will  be 
here  after  a  while  there  should  be  only  five  hundred 
thousand  owners  of  farms,  even  small  farms,  there  will 
be  in  them  a  conservative  force  that  may  save  all  prop- 
erty from  virtual  confiscation  and  society  from  chaos. 
If  planter  A.,  with  his  five  thousand  acres,  is  wise,  he 
will  hasten  to  establish  a  few  negro  voters  as  land- 
owners. He  will  save  money  by  making  it  to  their 
interest  to  keep  a  sharp  eye  on  government,  its  tax- 
ations, and  its  disbursements.  If  planter  A.  thinks 
it  important  that  this  colored  man  vote  with  him, 
he  would  better  establish  him  as  a  proprietor.  When 
it  comes  to  taxes,  the  land  votes,  for  the  most  part, 
one  way. 

4.  Owning  land  will,  in  most  respects  at  least,  have 
the  same  effect  upon  the  negro  that  it  has  upon  the 
white  man.  *  It  will  create  in  him  so  deep  a  personal 
and  family  interest  in  honest  and  capable  govern- 
ment, as  greatly  to  raise  his  character  as  a  voter. 
A  man  who  owns  a  farm,  be  it  ever  so  small,  is  not 
so  apt  to  sell  his  vote  for  a  dollar  or  a  dram  as  is  the 
man  who  owns  nothing  but  his  muscle.  Such  a  voter 
begins  to  consider  the  character  of  the  man  he  votes 
for.  Bad  legislation  will,  he  sees,  come  back  to 
his  farm.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  owning  even 
a  little  property,  especially  landed  property,  greatly 
sharpens  a  voter's  wits,  in  town  or  country,  in  choosing 
rulers.  In  this  one  case,  at  least,  self-interest  serves  to- 
clarify  the  judgment  and  to  support  the  conscience. 


The  Negro  and  the  Land.  215 

What  is  equally  important,  the  man  who  feels 
that  the  acre  he  works  is  his  own  is  more  independ- 
ent in  his  choice  and  action.  We  may  be  very 
sure  that  one  hundred  negroes  owning  little  farms, 
and  one  hundred  owning  nothing,  are  very  different 
forces  in  society  and  government.  It  is  just  as  true 
of  white  men. 

5.  If  such  of  them  as  are  fitted  for  it  were  land- 
owners they  could  do  something  in  bearing  the  ex- 
penses of  government.  They  would  largely  increase 
the  resources  of  the  State.  Some  will  say :  "  Some- 
body owns  the  land  now  and  pays  tax  on  it." 
But  he  owns,  most  likely,  a  great  deal  that  pays  him 
nothing  and  that  is  on  the  tax  lists  at  one  tenth  of 
what  it  ought  to  be  worth.  Mr.  B.'s  plantation  of 
one  thousand  acres,  half  worked  and  a  burden  to 
him,  is  nominally  worth  from  $4  to  $6  per  acre. 
From  what  he  told  me  recently,  I  doubt  if  it  nets 
him  three  per  cent,  on  this  low  nominal  valuation. 
If  five  hundred  of  the  one  thousand  acres  were 
divided  into  ten  fifty-acre  farms,  and  worked  by  as 
many  negro  families,  owning  them,  the  value  of  the 
whole  would  be  doubled.  The  five  hundred  sold 
would  support  as  many  as  fifty  persons,  and  leave 
something  to  sell ;  the  five  hundred  kept  by  Mr.  B. 
could  be  put  in  first-class  condition  with  part  of  the 
proceeds  of  the  portion  sold.;  it  could  be  worked 
effectively  and  made  worth  more  than  the  whole  of 
the  thousand  acres  as  they  now  stand.  There  are 


216  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

thousands  of  proprietors  in  Mr.  B.'s  case,  and  there 
has  been  enough  experimenting  of  the  kind  sug- 
gested to  show  its  feasibility  and  usefulness. 

Is  there  any  property  less  valuable  or  desirable 
than  a  large  landed  property  that  cannot  be  worked, 
or  in  any  way  made  productive,  but  that  must  pay 
tax  year  after, year?  We  have  multitudes  of  poor 
and  embarrassed  land-owners  in  the  South  who 
would  be  comparatively  rich  with  one  half  of  what 
they  now  own  and  cannot  manage. 

6.  The  South  needs  a  large  number  of  negro  farm- 
ers, settled  on  their  own  farms,  for  a  reason  that 
will  some   day   become   exigent :    we   need    them 
as  a  grand  self-sustaining   and  efficient   moral  and 
social  police  against  the  idle  and  vicious  of  their 
own  race.     The  land-owning  negro  is  the  sworn  foe 
of  "  tramps."     The  antagonism  is  as  natural  as  that 
between  shepherds  and  "  sheep-killing  dogs."     It  is 
a  very  rare  thing  that  a  negro  desperado  belongs  to 
a  family  settled  on  its  own  land.     If  a  large  num- 
ber of  negro  families  were  established  on  their  own 
farms  they  would  prevent,  cure,  and  put  down  vag- 
abondage as  no  "  vagrant  act  "  ever  devised  could 
do  it. 

7.  It  is  of  very  great  importance  to  make  possible 
such  industrial  and  social  development  among  the 
negroes  that  they  may  become  strong  enough  to 
provide  for  the  helpless  of  their  own  race.     I-could 
mention  a  number  of  cases,  where  the  fact  of  own- 


The  Negro  and  the  Land.  217 

ing  a  little  land  enabled  certain  negro  families  to 
assist  others  of  their  race,  less  fortunate,  in  the  hour 
of  their  need.  Within  gunshot  of  my  own  house  are 
several  negro  families  able  to  make  comfortable 
some  old  and  helpless  "  grandfathers  "  and  "  grand- 
mothers "  by  virtue  of  owning  their  homes,  And 
they  do  it  creditably  to  themselves  ;  thus  honoring 
their  own  hearts  and  keeping  their  poor  "  off  the 
county." 

Our  white  people  may,  however,  make  up  their 
minds  to  it,  that  if  the  negroes  continue,  as  most 
of  them  now  are,  for  another  generation,  we  will 
have  to  go  into  the  business  of  keeping  "poor-houses" 
and  of  supporting  paupers  on  a  scale  of  things 
not  now  in  our  imagination.  By  every  considera- 
tion of  good  sense  and  good  conscience,  if  the 
negro  is  to  stay  here,  (and  nothing  is  more  certain 
so  far  as  human  calculations  go,)  we  should  desire 
him  to  become  as  useful  as  he  may  be  made  to 
himself,  his  family,  his  neighbors,  and  the  State. 

8.  I  mention  another  matter  of  large  significance 
and  importance,  that  will  be  considered  some  day. 
May  it  not  be  too  late !  It  is  eminently  desirable 
that  the  negro,  as  a  citizen  and  as  a  man,  should 
develop  in  his  breast  the  sentiment  of  patriotism. 
Up  till  a  recent  period  their  interest  in  the  country 
has  been  largely  confined  to  one  of  the  political 
parties.  But  partisan  zeal  is  no  substitute  for 
patriotism  ;  nor  is  gratitude  to  a  party,  or  to  a  section 


218  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

of  the  country,  even,  a  substitute  for  love  01  country. 
In  several  communities  I  have  observed  that  as  the 
negroes  lost  interest  in  the  party  with  which  they 
had  been  identified,  they  lost  their  interest  in  the 
elections,  and  largely  in  the  country  itself.  It  is  ab- 
solutely certain  that  thousands  upon  thousands  of 
negroes  did  for  years  stand  in  expectancy,  looking 
for  the  "  forty  acres  and  a  mule."  And  it  is  equally 
certain  that  this  foolish  deception  went  far  to  shake 
their  confidence  and  to  disgust  them  with  politics. 
There  is,  I  believe,  no  condition  so  favorable  to 
the  development  of  patriotic  feeling  among  a  people 
with  the  antecedents  and  surroundings  of  Southern 
negroes  as  the  ownership  of  land.  In  every  nation 
patriotism  is  rooted  in  the  soil  and  nourished  by  it.* 

*  It  is  proper  and  just  to  say  that  one  strong  reason,  alluded  to  in 
chapter  ii,  why  many  Southern  people  have  been  reluctant  to  sell  lands 
to  negroes,  is  their  fear  that  it  might  retard  the  immigration  they 
hope  for.  They  feel,  what  all  the  world  knows,  that  slavery  former- 
ly, and  the  presence  of  free  negroes  now,  with  all  the  embarrass- 
ments that  have  grown  out  of  these  facts,  have  been  a  bar  to  immigra- 
tion. Witness  the  fact  that  there  are  in  Georgia,  for  example,  in  a 
population  of  1,538,783,  only  10,310  of  foreign  birth.  But  I  suggest 
that  the  foreigners  who  might  wish  to  come  among  us  would  prefer  to 
settle  in  a  State  where  many  of  the  negroes  own  farms  than  where 
they  own  none  ;  simply  because  all  men,  who  think  clearly,  must 
know  that  a  land-owner,  though  poor  and  black,  is  a  better  citizen 
and  a  better  neighbor  than  a  man  who  changes  his  place,  or  is  liable 
to  change  it,  every  year.  I  undertake  to  say,  and  with  perfect  con- 
fidence, that  the  negroes  who,  in  Georgia,  according  to  the  Report  of 
the  Comptroller-General  for  1880,  own  586,664  acres  of  "  improved 
lands,"  represent  the  very  best  sense  and  character  in  the  negro 
population  in  the  State. 


The  Negro  and  the  Land.  219 

9.  I  mention,  lastly,  as  a  reason  why  it  is  desira- 
ble that  there  should  be  many  land-owners  among 
the  negroes,  what  good  people  will  consider  and 
lay  to  heart :  it  is  best  every  way  for  their  moral, 
social,  and  race  development.  I  cannot  conceive 
of  a  good  man  who  does  not  wish  the  best  fortune 
to  all  men  of  every  race.  I  cannot  conceive 
of  a  good  man  who  would  not  rejoice  to  see  the 
negroes  more  comfortable,  intelligent,  moral,  useful, 
than  they  are.  I  should  despise  myself  to  have  any 
other  feeling  toward  any  human  creature.  And  let 
us  remember  always  that  in  thinking  of  the  provi- 
dence of  God,  in  his  dealings  with  the  negroes  in 
this  country,  we  must  never  confine  our  thoughts 
to  those  few  negroes  nor  to  this  small  section  of 
the  earth.  We  must  think  of  the  unknown  millions 
in  Africa  and  of  the  destiny  of  two  continents. 
That  the  Christianized  negroes  in  this  country  may 
realize  their  providential  mission  in  the  world,  they 
have  need  to  be  anchored  in  the  soil  that  supports 
them.  For  the  Church  no  less  than  the  State  must, 
in  the  last  analysis,  find  its  resources  of  men  and 
money  in  agriculture.  The  field  and  not  the  count- 
ing-room is  at  the  basis  of  society.  Africa  must 
largely  draw  its  missionary  re-enforcements,  genera- 
tion after  generation,  from  the  land-owning  negroes 
of  the  Southern  States  of  our  Union. 


220  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 


CHAPTER  XVH, 

THE  AFRICAN  CHURCHES  IN  AMERICA. 

I  HAVE  said  that  there  are  nearly  one  million 
people  of  African  blood    communicants  in  the 
different  Churches    in  this  country.*      The   whole 
negro  population  has  been  brought  largely  under 
the  influence  of  religious  principle  and  sentiment. 

I  have  had  good  opportunity  to  know  the  relig- 
ious characteristics  of  these  people.  My  old  nurse, 
"Aunt  Esther,"  was  a  Christian,  if  ever  there  was 
one  in  this  world.  She  lived  and  died  in  the  enjoy- 
ment and  practice  of  religion.  Her  plaintive  melo- 
dies linger  in  my  grateful  memory  to  this  hour. 
My  mother  has  with  her  now  the  same  cook  she 
had  in  1851.  "Aunt  Mary"  is  a  "stalwart  Meth- 
odist ; "  the  pictures  of  all  her  Bishops,  Bishop 
Allen's  in  the  center,  hang  in  her  room.  She  shout- 
ed mightily  the  first  time  she  listened  to  my  boy- 

*  I  might  have  said  more  than  a  million,  as  follows — those  "esti- 
mated" expressing  the  judgment  of  the  best  informed  : 

African  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 214,808 

Methodist  Episcopal  Zion  Church,  (colored) 190,000 

Colored  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 112,300 

Meth.  Episcopal  Church  (col'd  members  estim'd)     300,000 
Colored  Baptists  (estimated) 500,000 


The  African  Churches  in  America.          221 

preaching,  in  1858,  while  yet  a  student  in  Emory 
College. 

I  have  seen  the  negroes  in  all  their  religious 
moods,  in  their  most  death-like  trances  and  in  their 
wildest  outbreaks  of  excitement.  I  have  preached 
to  them  in  town  and  city  and  on  the  plantations. 
I  have  been  their  pastor,  have  led  their  class  and 
prayer  meetings,  conducted  their  love-feasts,  taught 
them  the  Catechism.  I  have  married  them,  baptized 
their  children,  and  buried  their  dead.  In  the  real- 
ity of  religion  among  them  I  have  the  most  entire 
confidence,  nor  can  I  ever  doubt  it  while  religion  is 
a  reality  to  me.  Their  notions  may  be  in  some, 
things  crude,  their  conceptions  of  truth  realistic, 
sometimes  to  a  painful,  sometimes  to  a  grotesque, 
degree.  They  may  be  more  emotional  than  ethical. 
They  may  show  many  imperfections  in  their  re- 
ligious development ;  nevertheless  their  religion  is 
their  most  striking  and  important,  their  strongest 
and  most  formative,  characteristic.  They  are  more 
remarkable  here  than  anywhere  else  ;  their  religion 
has  had  more  to  do  in  shaping  their  better  charac- 
ter in  this  country  than  any  other  influence  ;  it  will 
most  determine  what  they  are  to  become  in  their  fu- 
ture development.  No  man,  whatever  his  personal 
relations  to  the  subject,  who  seeks  to  understand 
these  people,  can  afford  to  overlook  or  undervalue 
their  religious  history  and  character.  Whatever  the 
student  of  their  history  may  believe  on  the  subject 


222  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

of  religion  in  general  and  of  their  religion  in  particu- 
lar, this  is  certain — it  is  most  real  to  them.  To  them 
God  is  a  reality.  So  are  heaven,  hell,  and  the  judg- 
ment-day. 

Their  Churches  are  the  centers  of  their  social  and 
religious  life.  No  man  has  more  influence  with  his 
following  than  has  the  negro  pastor.  Some  of  their 
"  shepherds  "  may  be  far  from  being  "  patterns  and 
ensamples  to  the  flock,"  but  they  have  power  with 
their  people.  Many  of  them  are  men  who,  in  zeal, 
devotion,  and  Christlikeness  of  spirit,  are  worthy  to 
take  rank  with  the  confessors  and  saints  of  any  age 
.or  Church.  There  is  an  old  man  in  this  village 
from  whom  the  wisest  may  learn  and  the  holiest 
may  receive  new  inspiration  in  their  religious  life. 
Many  times  he  has  done  me  good.  David  Cureton 
will  claim  many  stars  in  his  crown  of  rejoicing.  In 
the  old  days  many  of  the  slave  preachers  were  men 
of  marked  character  and  religious  power.  Many 
will  be  their  trophies  when  "  the  day  "  reveals  the 
secrets  of  all  men.  Their  skill  in  "  exegesis  "  and 
"  dialectics  "  was  limited,  but  their  power  in  ex- 
hortation and  application  was  notable.*  Now  that 
education  is  doing  its  blessed  work  in  them  more 
perfectly,  many  of  them  are  men  of  real  intellectual 

*  The  following  incident  is  historic.  I  suppress  his  name,  for  I  truly 
respect  him,  and  somebody  might  tease  my  old  colored  brother.  He 
was  preaching  on  the  "  Fiery  Furnace  and  the  Three  Hebrew  Chil- 
dren." His  history  and  geography  were  confused,  and  by  some 
chance  he  got  his  biblical  history  mixed  up  with  some  mythologic  non- 


The  African  Churches  in  America.          223 

power.  Some  names  could  be  given  that  are  known 
and  honored  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic. 

The  hope  of  the  African  race  in  this  country  is 
largely  in  its  pulpit.  The  school-house  and  the 
newspaper  have  not  substituted  the  pulpit,  as  a 
throne  of  spiritual  power,  in  any  Christian  nation. 
I  do  not  believe  that  they  ever  will.  But  for  this 
race  the  pulpit  is  pre-eminently  its  teacher.  Here 
they  must  receive  their  best  counsels  and  their 
divinest  inspiration.  I  say  its  pulpit ;  I  mean  this. 
White  preachers  have  done  much  and  ought  to  have 
done  more ;  they  can  now  do  much  and  ought  to  do 
a  hundred-fold  more  than  they  do ;  but  the  great 
work  must  be  done  by  preachers  of  the  negro  race. 
Tongues  and  ears  were  made  for  each  other;  in 
each  race  both  its  tongues  and  its  ears  have  char- 
acteristics of  their  own.  No  other  tongue  can 
speak  to  the  negro's  ear  like  a  negro's  tongue.  All 
races  are  so ;  some  missionaries  have  found  this 

sense  he  had  heard  from  the  "  college  boys."  He  gave  a  most 
dramatic  account  of  the  scene  and  occasion — they  excel  in  this  sort 
of  thing — and  managed  himself  and  his  theme  tolerably  well  till  he 
came  to  speak  of  the  "fourth"  man  whom  Nebuchadnezzar  saw 
"  walking  in  the  midst  of  the  fire."  Whereupon  he  delivered  him- 
self in  this  wise :  "  My  brutherin,  commentators  differ  as  to  who 
this  fourth  one  wus.  -Some  say  it  wus  Moses,  some  say  it  wus 
Isaiah  ;  but  my  opinion  is  he  ware  Jupiter."  Yet  this  same  man 
had  power  with  men  in  exhortation  and  power  with  God  in  prayer. 
On  questions  of  sin,  repentance,  faith  in  Christ,  and  religious  ex- 
perience he  could  touch  the  conscience  till  it  quivered  in  agony, 
and  move  the  heart  till  it  melted  with  contrition  or  burst  forth  into 
songs  of  gladness.  Moreover,  he  lived  his  religion. 


224  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

out.     In  every  mission  field  the  "native  ministry" 
does  a  work  that  no  other  can  do. 

How  urgent  the  need  and  how  sacred  the  duty 
of  preparing  those  of  this  race  whom  God  calls  to 
preach  to  their  people !  Heaven  bless  the  men  and 
women  who  have  given  money  and  personal  service 
for  their  education  !  Heaven  bless  their  "  schools 
of  the  prophets!"  May  they  ever  be  under  the 
wisest  guidance  and  the  holiest  influences ! 

Mistakes  were  inevitable  ;  some  unwholesome  in- 
fluences have,  in  some  cases,  marred  the  good  work. 
This  should  not  surprise  us.  But,  after  all,  never 
was  money  better  spent  than  in  founding  training- 
schools  for  a  native  African  ministry.  Would  God 
that  some  Southern  men  and  women  counted 
themselves  worthy  to  take  part  in  this  ministry 
of  consecrated  gold  and  holy  teaching ! 

I  am  as  sure  as  I  am  that  it  is  January,  1881,  that 
the  negro  preachers  are,  as  a  class,  improving,  and 
that  they  are  capable  of  large  culture,  both  intel- 
lectual and  spiritual.  But  I  do  not  wish  to  theorize 
about  their  intellectual  capacity — overestimated  by 
enthusiasts,  on  one  side,  underestimated,  on  the 
other,  by  those  who  think  that  consistency  means 
sticking  to  an  expressed  opinion,  facts  or  no  facts. 
The  measure  of  their  capacity  I  do  not  know ; 
perhaps  no  man  knows.  How  should  any  one 
know?  The  experiment  is  only  in  process;  it  may 
take  a  century  to  complete  it.  But  nothing  is 


The  African  Churches  in  America.         225 

more  certain  than  that  they  are  capable  of  large 
improvement. 

In  studying  the  religious  characteristics  of  the 
negroes  one  who  is  informed  and  is  only  concerned 
about  facts — leaving  his  theories  and  pet  plans  of 
Church  work  to  take  care  of  themselves — will  be 
impressed  with  the  power  of  their  ecclesiastical  or- 
ganizations. Whether  the  negro  Church  leaders 
have  an  instinct  for  government  I  know  not,  but 
this  I  know — they  hold  together  well.  They  are 
devoted  to  their  Churches.  There  is  not  simply 
individual  enthusiasm,  but  a  certain  esprit  in  the 
congregations  that  might  well  be  the  envy  and 
despair  of  many  a  white  pastor.  They  go  their 
length  for  their  Church.  But  one  Church  in  the 
world  has  such  a  grasp  upon  the  money  question — 
I  mean  the  Roman  Catholic  Church.  A  negro  con- 
gregation in  Atlanta,  for  instance,  (where  I  recently, 
after  preaching  in  one  of  the  colored  churches,  wit- 
nessed a  collection  that  was  a  marvel  to  me,)  will 
raise  more  money,  in  proportion  to  ability,  than 
any  white  congregation  in  that  city  of  enterprise 
and  liberality.  When  two  of  the  "  stewards,"  ap- 
pointed to  this  office,  stand  up  before  .the  chancel 
and  take  up  the  collection,  the  contributors  march- 
ing up  while  the  congregation  sings  some  simple 
recitative  and  chorus  of  their  own,  then,  be  sure, 
there  will  be  a  hail  of  nickels  and  dimes.  They 

work  wonders  in  their  money  management — partic- 
15 


226  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

ularly  the  "  stewardesses."  To  mention  another 
characteristic,  no  people  in  the  world  can  match 
them  in  sticking  to  a  protracted  meeting.  It  is  no 
uncommon  thing  for  them  to  hold  straight  on  for 
three  or  even  six  months.  There  is  something  in 
this  persistence  besides  religious  enthusiasm  ;  the 
Church,  as  intimated  above,  is  the  center  of  their 
social  as  well  as  of  their  religious  life.  In  any 
view,  it  is  a  potent  influence.  No  doubt  there 
are  many  follies  and  extravagances,  many  mistakes 
and  wastes  of  power,  but,  nevertheless,  they  make 
headway. 

The  most  remarkable  tendency  that  has  so  far 
shown  itself  in  the  development  of  their  ecclesi- 
astical life  is  the  strong,  and,  as  I  think,  resistless, 
disposition,  in  those  of  like  faith,  to  come  together 
in  their  religious  organizations.  The  centripetal  is 
stronger  than  the  centrifugal  force.  We  have  al- 
ready a  number  of  African  Churches.  Indeed,  the 
great  majority  of  them  belong  to  Churches  not 
only  of  their  own  "  faith  and  order,"  but  of  their 
own  "  race  and  color."  This  tendency  showed 
itself  in  many  ways  in  the  South,  before  their 
emancipation.  I  have  known  them,  in  old  times, 
walk  from  ten  to  fifteen  miles  on  a  Sunday  to 
attend  their  own  meetings.  This  disposition  has 
become  very  pronounced,  and  has  expressed  itself 
on  a  very  large  scale  since  they  were  set  free. 

I  have  meditated  much  on  this  subject,  and  give 


TJie  African  Churches  in  America.         227 

my  opinion — holding  it  subject  to  revision,  if  the 
facts  of  their  future  development  require  it.  As  the 
matter  appears  to  me,  after  much  observation  and 
much  conversation  with  those  who  fairly  represent 
their  people,  there  is  somewhere,  in  their  secret 
thoughts  and  aspirations,  a  mighty  under-current 
of  sentiment  that  tends  to  bring  them  into  race- 
affiliations  in  their  religious  development.  It  is  an 
instinct  that  does  not  recognize  itself,  that  does  not 
argue,  that  cannot  express  itself  in  words,  but  that 
moves  straight  on  to  its  ends,  steady,  resistless, 
and,  in  the  end,  triumphant.  And,  as  this  whole 
problem  appears  to  me,  the  hand  of  God  is  in  it. 
He  who  gave  to  the  stork  knowledge  of  "  her  ap- 
pointed times  "  in  her  flight  through  the  heavens, 
has  implanted  this  strong  instinct  of  coming  to- 
gether, and  for  the  wisest  and  most  beneficent  of 
far-reaching  and  saving  ends. 

An  illustration  is  now  being  furnished  of  the  cor- 
rectness of  these  views,  and  in  a  very  impressive 
and  striking  manner.  The  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church  is,  perhaps,  the  strongest  single  ecclesias- 
tical organization  in  this  country.  Since  the  war 
this  Church  has  lavished — and  not  always  wisely — 
its  treasures  of  men  and  money  upon  the  South. 
Its  disbursements  of  money  in  the  prosecution  of 
its  Southern  work  sum  up  among  the  millions. 
We  have  seen  what  it  has  been  doing  for  thirteen 
years  through  the  "  Freedmen's  Aid  Society."  Its 


228  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

great  Missionary  Society  has  spent  hundreds  of 
thousands  upon  their  Southern  work.  The  "  Church 
Extension  Society"  has  helped  mightily — investing, 
many  thousands  in  assisting  the  negroes  to  build 
churches. 

Within  the  old  slave  States  they  have  about 
400,003  members.  Of  the  whole  number  perhaps 
250,000  are  negroes.  In  such  States  as  Virginia,  the 
Carolinas,  Georgia,  Alabama,  Mississippi,  and  Loui- 
siana the  negroes  are  very  greatly  in  the  majority. 

I  have  had  good  knowledge  of  the  work  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in  the  South.  I  have 
studied  the  subject  carefully  in  their  broad  exhibit 
of  statistics  and  in  their  press.  I  have  studied  it 
also  in  detail.  In  my  town  of  Oxford  they  have  a 
church.  Some  of  its  members  are  of  my  house- 
hold. Among  its  older  members  are  those  who 
were  members  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
South,  before  the  war.  I  was,  with  the  Rev.  John 
W.  Talley,  at  one  time,  in  1859,  their  pastor.  The 
old  college  janitor,  the  Rev.  David  Cureton,  now  a 
superannuated  preacher  of  the  Savannah  Confer- 
ence of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  was  a 
local  preacher  in  the  old  organization.  "  Judge 
Levi,"  and  "  Mrs.  Judge" — as  they  were  known  to 
the  students — who  lived  near  the  college  campus 
thirty  years  ago,  where  they  live  to-day,  were 
members  then  and  they  are  members  now.  In 
this  congregation  is  the  quadroon  woman,  "Aunt 


The  African  Churches  in  America.        229 

Amie,"  or  Mrs.  Williams,  (she  that  has  "  had  her 
own  time  and  her  own  way "  for  thirty  years,) 
who  will  be  remembered  by  many  old  students 
for  excellent  laundry  work.  And  others  of  the 
"old  set"  still  survive  —  much  inclined  they  are 
to  look  upon  the  younger  negroes,  who  never 
knew  the  "  old  times,"  as  mere  parvenus.  In  their 
social  and  religious  character  they  are  as  good  as 
the  new,  and  as  workers  somewhat  better.  Faith- 
ful work  was  done  for  them,  and  the  colored  pas- 
tors of  to-day  will  not  take  it  to  heart  if  it  be  sug- 
gested that  the  preaching  in  the  old  time  averaged 
better  than  it  does  now. 

Since  this  Church,  with  many  others,  "went 
over "  in  a  body  to  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  in  1867,  I  have  had  exceptionally  good  op- 
portunity to  know  their  affairs.  My  honored  father 
in-law,  the  Rev.  John  W.  Yarbrough,  of  blessed 
memory,  who  was  an  itinerant  (and  ordained  elder 
by  Bishop  Morris)  before  the  "  division,"  who  had 
been  from  1844  a  traveling  preacher  in  the  Church 
South,  entered  the  ministry  of  the  Church  North, 
January,  1867.  After  seven  years  of  faithful  serv- 
ice in  the  Church  North,  he  returned  to  the  Church 
South,  and  having,  in  both  Churches,  diligently 
"  served  his  generation  according  to  the  will  of 
God,"  winning  many  trophies  in  each,  died,  Decem- 
ber 1 6,  1879,  in  the  fullness  and  triumph  of  Chris- 
tian faith.  He  was  for  two  years  the  pastor  of  this 


230  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

Oxford  Colored  Church  in  their  present  organization, 
and  for  four  years  their  presiding  elder.  From 
him  I  learned  all  the  facts  that  characterized  their 
transition  period,  and  whatever  was  important  in 
the  opinions  and  sentiments  of  the  other  colored 
Churches  in  his  charge. 

For  six  years  and  more  I  have  had  my  residence 
very  near  their  Church,  preaching  for  them  and 
helping  them  in  all  ways  possible  to  me.*  I  was 
welcomed  by  them  before  the  "Cape  May  Treaty" 
between  the  two  Churches. 

I  think  I  know  the  Oxford  Colored  Church  well. 
My  opinion  is,  it  is  steadily  improving,  being  yet 
far  from  perfection.  For  years  the  Freedmen's 
Aid  Society  helped  to  support  a  school  for  them. 
It  was  while  on  an  official  visit  to  this  school  that 
I  first  met  the  Rev.  Dr.  R.  S.  Rust,  the  Secretary 
of  the  Society,  and  began  to  learn  something  of 
their  methods.  In  this  school  many  have  been 
taught  the  "  rudiments,"  and  so  the  average  intelli- 
gence has  increased.  I  have  known  their  pastors, 
who,  for  several  years  past,  have  been  colored  men. 
Some  of  them  have  been  very  ignorant,  some  of 
them  rather  superior  for  their  class.  But  this  is 


*  Some  of  the  more  "  stylish  "  have  imitated  white  people,  going 
from  their  pastor  for  exceptional  service,  as  a  marriage  or  a  funeral, 
and  have  insisted  on  my  presence.  But  the  colored  pastors  have 
not  seemed  to  be  at  all  jealous  ;  the  "  fees  "  disturb  no  man's  equa- 
nimity. 


The  African  Churches  in  America.  231 

certain,  they  improve.  This  Church  "  commands 
better  talent  "  than  it  did  six  years  ago.  One  of  its 
dangers  is,  and  it  is  no  small  danger,  nearly  every 
man  among  them  who  feels  that  he  has  some  "  gift 
of  speech "  wants  "  license."  As  many  white 
Churches  have  done,  they,  too,  have  overdone  the 
"  license "  business,  sometimes  mistaking,  I  have 
thought,  a  desire  to  do  good  for  a  call  to  preach. 

The  reader  will  pardon  these  rather  gossipy 
details.  I  wished  to  show  that  I  have  not  been 
looking  at  these  people  through  a  telescope,  that  I 
have  some  right  to  an  opinion  as  to  their  charac- 
teristics and  tendencies. 

Now,  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  has  done 
very  nearly  its  best  for  these  colored  people  in  the 
South,  and  its  best  means  a  great  deal.  And  the 
colored  people  are  not  ungrateful.  This  Church 
has  not  only  spent  millions  of  money,  it  has  laid 
itself  out  to  make  the  colored  members  "  feel  at 
home."  They  began  with  mixed  Conferences,  not 
distinguishing  colors  in  statistics  or  appointments. 
Of  eloquent  speech  and  writing  there  has  been  no 
lack  to  educate  the  colored  people  to  forget  their 
color.  This  tenderness  shows  itself  even  in  the 
"  Discipline,"  and  in  a  way  certainly  amusing  and 
probably  embarrassing.  Thus  paragraph  396  reads, 
"  Blue  Ridge  Conference  shall  include  the  State  of 
North  Carolina."  This  is  the  white  Conference. 
Paragraph  444  reads,  "  North  Carolina  Conference 


232  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

shall  include  the  State  of  North  Carolina  not  in- 
cluded in  the  Blue  Ridge  Conference."  This  is  the 
colored  Conference.  A  high  official  of  the  Church 
says  frankly :  "  This  clumsy  form  of  speech  is 
fetched  about  to  avoid  any  specific  allusions  to 
color."  He  thinks  it  "  over-fastidious."  But  it 
illustrates  how  earnestly  this  great  Church  has 
sought  to  cause  itself  and  to  cause  the  negroes  to  for- 
get color.  Nothing  in  the  range  of  reason  has  been 
left  undone  to  accomplish  this  result.  The  experi- 
ment has  been  made  fully,  vigorously,  patiently,  and 
by  leaders  wise  in  managing  men. 

But  nature  asserts  herself.  In  nearly  all  of  the 
States  the  Conferences  are  now  unmixed  ;  in  all  of 
them  where  the  negroes  are  sufficiently  numerous 
to  form  separate  organizations.  As  oil  and  water 
diligently  shaken  together  in  a  vessel  mix  for  a 
time,  but  without  chemical  union,  so  these  two  races 
mixed  in  the  Conferences  for  a  time.  When  the 
mixture  settled,  lo !  the  oil  and  the  water  touched, 
but  were  distinct. 

People  who  build  theories  out  of  facts  will  study 
such  a  case  as  this. 

Why  this  unmixing?  At  whose  instance?  Not 
at  the  instance  of  the  white  preachers,  most  cer- 
tainly. They  were  committed,  by  every  form  of 
words,  to  the  opposite  view.  Indeed,  every  body 
knows  the  white  preachers  did  not  drive  them  off. 
(But  after  the  experiment  had  gone  on  for  some 


The  African  Churches  in  America.  233 

years  they  were,  I  am  inclined  to  believe,  "resigned" 
to  the  separation  into  "  two  bands.") 

But  instinct  is  supreme ;  the  colored  brethren 
were  restless  till  they  had  their  own  Conferences. 
It  was  the  same  instinct,  for  instinct  it  is,  that  led 
to  the  formation  of  a  number  of  African  Church 
organizations  in  the  North  long  ago.  The  Meth- 
odist Episcopal  Church,  South,  recognized  (quite 
resignedly,  I  must  allow)  this  instinct,  and  in  1870 
erected  their  colored  members  into  a  separate  ec- 
clesiastical organization — "The  Colored  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church  in  America."  It  is  an  immense 
name,  but  the  shorter  ones  had  been  appropriated. 
This  colored  Church  has  wrought  famously  during 
the  ten  years  of  its  existence,  numbering  in  1880 
112,300  members.  The  Discipline  of  this  Church, 
by  the  way,  expressly  provides  that  no  white  man  can 
become  a  member.  One  white  man  desired  admis- 
sion into  one  of  their  Conferences,  and  was  refused. 

The  Baptist  negroes,  also,  like  globules  of  mer- 
cury, have  run  together.  So  of  the  rest,  where  there 
have  been  numbers  large  enough. 

It  is  this  instinct  that  has  called  upon  successive 
General  Conferences  —  and  that  will  continue  to 
call — for  "  a  colored  Bishop."  I  have  talked  with 
many  of  their  preachers  and  laymen  to  find  out,  if 
I  could,  what  is  the  very  truth  in  this  call.  Their 
earnestness  is  out  of  all  proportion  to  their  argu- 
ments; their  logic  is  not  at  all  equal  to  their  feeling 


234  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

in  the  matter.  Hence  logic  does  not  satisfy  them 
when  the  Conference  declines  their  request.  The 
Conference  follows  its  logic  as  well  as  its  feeling — 
should  I  say  instinct  ? — and  declines  ;  the  colored 
brethren  follow  their  feeling  and  brace  its  cry  by 
such  logic  as  they  can  master.  They  do  not  see 
very  clearly  how  a  colored  Bishop  is  to  be  more 
useful ;  they  know  well  that,  in  some  respects,  a 
white  Bishop  can  do  more  for  them  ;  they  cannot, 
to  their  own  satisfaction,  quite  make  out  their  case. 
But  they  want  their  colored  Bishop  all  the  same. 

Their  arguments  wont  stay  answered  ;  as  well 
argue  with  magnetic  currents.  Instinct  never  yet 
surrendered  to  arguments ;  it  is  their  race-instinct, 
deep  and  strong  and  "  inexpugnable,"  as  Carlyle 
would  say.  Who  that  heard  their  impassioned 
speeches  at  Cincinnati,  in  May,  1880,  could  doubt 
that  their  appeal  came,  not  from  the  cold  conclu- 
sions of  the  reason,  but  red-hot  out  of  their  hearts, 
from  the  irresistible  promptings  of  instinct?  List- 
ening to  their  speeches,  I  felt  strongly  the  mighty 
under-current  that  their  words  but  feebly  revealed 
and  I  felt — "  They  are  right ;  they  do  well  to  ask  this 
Conference  for  a  Bishop  of  their  own  race."  Listen- 
ing to  the  words  of  the  white  leaders  of  the  Con- 
ference, and  looking  at  the  subject  in  the  light  of 
cold  judgment,  I  said  to  myself,  ."  This  Conference 
is  also  right  to  decline  the  request." 

This  instinctive  disposition  to  form  Church  affili- 


The  African  C /lurches  in  America.        235 

ations  on  the  color  basis  may  be  wise  or  unwise. 
But  it  is  in  them — deep  in  them;  The  tendency  is 
strengthening  all  the  time.  This  instinct  will  never 
rest  satisfied  till  it  realizes  itself  in  complete  sepa- 
rations. Whether  we  of  the  white  race  approve  or 
disapprove  matters  little.  The  movements  that 
grow  out  of  race-instincts  do  not  wait  upon  the  con- 
clusions of  philosophy  ;  nor  do  they,  for  a  long 
time,  take  counsel  of  policy.  We  may,  all  of  us,  as 
well  adjust  our  plans  to  the  determined  and  inev- 
itable movements  of  this  instinct  —  that  does  not 
reason,  but  that  moves  steadily  and  resistlessly  to 
accomplish  its  ends.  It  is  a  very  grave  question  to 
be  considered  by  all  who  have  responsibility  in  the 
matter:  Whether  over-repression  of  race-instincts 
may  not  mar  their  normal  evolution — may  not  in- 
troduce elements  unfriendly  to  healthful  growth- 
may  not  result  in  explosions  ?  I  have  seen  a  heavy 
stone  wall  overturned  by  a  root  that  was  once  a 
tiny  white  fiber.  Instinct  is  like  the  life-force  that 
expresses  itself  in  life — or  in  death. 

But,  so  far  as  the  duty  of  the  white  race  is  con- 
cerned, what  would  it  matter  if  all  the  colored 
Christians  should  segregate  into  Churches  of  their 
own  color  as  well  as  their  own  faith?  Nothing 
whatever.  No  right-minded  Church  can  wish  to 
hold  on  to  them  for  mere  aggrandizement  in  num- 
bers ;  for  displays  in  the  "  Year-Books  "  of  statis- 
ticians ;  or  for  any  other  reason  "  of  the  earth 


236  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

earthy."  Such  "numbering  of  Israel"  is  not  of  the 
spirit  of  Christ.  With  David's  example  before  us  we 
should  "crucify  ''  this  sort  of  "carnal  ambition." 

If  every  colored  Methodist  in  the  United  States 
were  to-day  in  one  organization,  this  would  not 
change  the  grounds  or  nature  of  our  obligations  to 
them  in  any  respect,  so  far  as  fraternal  love,  frater- 
nal aid,  and  co-operation  are  concerned.  It  would 
then,  as  now,  be  our  duty  to  help  them  in  all  pos- 
sible ways  ;  and,  considering  their  history  in  this 
country,  and  the  providential  indications  of  their 
relation  to  the  salvation  of  Africa,  just  as  much  our 
duty  then  as  now.  It  does  not  lessen  the  interest 
and  love  of  a  right-minded  mother  in  her  daughter 
when  that  daughter  becomes  a  mother  and  keeps 
her  own  house.  If  there  be  any  difference,  the 
mother  is  more  of  a  mother  when  she  becomes  a 
grandmother. 

If  there  were  not  one  negro  in  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church  the  "  Freedmen's  Aid  Society  " 
would  be  as  much  needed  as  it  is  now.  The  "  Col- 
ored Methodist  Episcopal  Church  of  America"  that 
was  "  set  up  " — I  hope  not  "  set  off" — needs  the 
help  of  its  mother,  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
South,  every  whit  as  much  as  if  they  were  still  with 
us.  Nay — all  the  more  because  they  are  not  with 
us.*  And  we  ought,  before  God,  to  help  them. 

*  The  next  General  Conference  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
South,  should  take  vigorous  action  to  establish  a  great  "  training- 


The  African  Churches  in  America.         237 

If  any  think  that  setting  them  up,  or  off,  was  only 
getting  rid  of  a  burden,  let  them  repent  of  this  evil 
thought — for  evil  it  is,  as  sure  as  the  stars  shine. 

So  if  all  the  Baptist,  or  Presbyterian,  or  Congre- 
gationalist,  or  other  colored  Christians,  should  come 
together  in  Church  organizations  of  their  own  color 
only,  then  white  Baptists,  Presbyterians,  Congre- 
gationalists,  or  others,  would  still  be  under  sacred 
bonds  to  help  them  in  every  good  word  and  work. 
This  I  lay  down  as  fundamental  and  vital — if  we 
are  ever  to  do  clear  thinking  on  the  subject,  or  to 
discharge  our  duty  to  God  in  them,  it  will  never 
do  to  make  our  religious  interest  in  the  negro  de- 
pend upon  his  being  a  member  of  our  particular 
Church  organizations.  We  can't  throw  off  our  re- 
sponsibilities by  ceasing  to  "  count  "  him  ;  nor  can 
we  measure  our  duty  by  his  relation  to  our  statis- 
tical glories  and  greatness. 

At  this  point,  as  well  as  elsewhere,  I  wish  to  say 
— because  it  ought  to  be  said — of  Southern  Chris- 
tians as  a  class :  They  are  in  a  state  of  mental  un- 
rest as  to  their  present  attitude  toward  the  negroes. 
Thousands  of  them  long  to  help  the  negroes — if 
they  only  knew  how  to  get  about  it.  People  at  a 
distance  imagine  that  it  is  very  easy  for  Southern 

school "  for  this  colored  daughter.  If  God  spares  his  life.  Dr.  John 
B.  M'Ferrin  is  the  man  to  take  the  matter  in  hand  and  put  it  through. 
This  note  is  on  my  own  long-meditated  thought.  The  doctor  knows 
not  that  I  write  it,  nor  any  other. 


238  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

white  people  to  help  them — which  only  illustrates 
that  many  are  not  as  wise  as  they  think  they  are. 
It  is  easier  now  than  it  was  for  a  dozen  years  after 
1865.  For  a  long  time  negroes  did  not  welcome 
Southern  co-operation — excepting  always,  money. 
Their  feeling  of  irritated  suspicion  as  to  the  South- 
ern whites  was  fomented  by  some  to  the  general 
hurt.  How  this  was  done  I  need  not  discuss  now. 
But  at  this  time  the  negroes  are  warming  toward 
the  Southern  people.  Of  this  there  are  expressions 
every  day  and  every-where.  Our  preachers  are 
not  unwelcome  now ;  in  some  quarters  they  are  in 
demand. 

It  is  a  sad  thing  in  the  life  of  even  one  man  when 
he  fails  to  see  and  embrace  an  opportunity  to  do  a 
good  deed,  or  to  forward  a  great  movement  toward 
the  triumph  of  our  Lord's  kingdom.  It  is  a  sadder 
thing  when  a  whole  Church,  or  a  whole  people, 
misses  its  opportunity.  We  of  the  South  have 
come  to  such  a  place  and  such  a  time  in  our  his-- 
tory  that  we  have  again  offered  to  us  a  great  oppor- 
tunity to  help  a  whole  race  in  two  continents.  May 
we  be  wise  and  faithful  to  make  the  most  of  it,  in 
the  love  of  God  and  of  man  ! 

It  is  true  that  our  path,  since  the  war,  has  been 
blocked  in  many  ways.  But  we  are  not  blameless  ; 
some  of  us  have  made  the  most  of  our  excuses. 
We  have  accepted  our  dismissal  too  readily.  We 
might  have  done  more ;  we  ought  to  have  done 


The  African  Churches  in  America.         239 

more ;  we  are  going  to  do  more.  Thousands  of 
our  people  will  help  them  whenever  they  see  the 
opportunity.  Truth  claims  for  our  people  more 
than  they  have  received  of  recognition.  After  all, 
they  have  helped  in  many  ways.  There  are  few 
churches  or  school-houses  in  all  the  South,  built  for 
the  use  of  the  negroes  since  the  war,  in  which  the 
money  of  Southern  white  people  has  not  been  freely 
invested.  Hardly  any  were  built  without  their  aid  : 
some  chiefly  through  their  help. 

This  much  let  us  understand  on  all  sides,  and,  if  it 
be  true,  let  us  act  upon  it :  Our  obligation  to  help 
the  negro  in  his  social  and  religious  development,  to 
help  him  in  working  out  his  destiny,  does  not  grow 
out  of  his  relation  to  "our  party"or  to  "  our  Church," 
but  out  of  our  common  relation  to  Christ  Jesus,  our 
elder  Brother,  and  to  God,  our  Father.  Whether 
in  our  Church  or  his  own,  we  must  help  him  in  all 
wise  and  brotherly  ways  to  work  out  his  problem 
and  fulfill  his  mission.  And  this  we  owe  to  God. 

NOTE. — In  that  noble  tribute  to  John  Wesley,  "  The  Wesley  Me- 
morial Volume,"  edited  by  the  Rev.  J.  O  A.  Clark,  D.D.,  LL.  D., 
and  published  by  Phillips  &  Hunt,  New  York —  received  after  this 
chapter  was  written —  is  an  interesting  and  well-written  article  on 
"  Wesley  and  the  Colored  Race,"  by  Rev.  L.  H.  Holsey,  one  of  the 
Bishops  of  the  Colored  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  of  America, 
from  which  I  take  the  following  extracts.  Altogether  noteworthy 
they  are.  Bishop  Holsey  says : 

"The  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  impoverished  by  the  war, 
and  scarcely  able  to  survive  the  shock  she  had  received,  was  unable 
to  keep  up  the  work  she  had  begun  and  continued  for  so  long  n 


240  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

time.  She  could  barely  hold  the  ground  she  had  gained.  During 
the  many  years  she  had  been  directing  the  evangelical  work  among 
the  negroes  she  had  been  training  a  body  of  colored  ministers  who 
were  ready  to  take  the  places  of  the  white  itinerant  and  local  preach- 
ers. Many  of  these  retained  their  connection  with  the  Cliurch  South  ; 
many  of  the  ablest  went  with  other  bodies  of  Methodists.  There 
was  now  aroused  a  great  interest  in  the  evangelization  of  the  col- 
ored race  on  the  part  of  the  Northern  people.  They  felt  that  every 
obligation  required  that  they  should  do  something  for  the  negro, 
and  at  once  they  began  the  work.  They  found  the  field  already 
prepared  and  white  to  the  harvest.  Preachers,  leaders,  and  church 
buildings  were  at  hand.  Culture  was  needed,  and  especially  organ- 
ization for  self-help,  for  hitherto  the  colored  people  had  been  pro- 
vided for  by  others.  They  must  now  learn  to  provide  for  themselves. 
The  African  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  had  a  corps  of  able 
Bishops,  and  a  compact  organization.  So  had  the  Zion  Methodists, 
who  differed  from  the  African  Methodists  in  but  little  more  than 
name.  The  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  rich  and  powerful,  also 
came  into  the  field.  The  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  established 
schools  and  colleges  and  has  been  liberal  and  energetic.  The  other 
bodies  have  shown  the  same  zeal. 

"  The  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  gave  to  the  colored 
Church  which  it  had  set  up  —  the  Colored  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church  of  America  —  all  the  church  buildings  which  it  had  erected 
for  its  colored  members,  and  saw  it  organized  for  important  and 
successful  work. 

"  The  effects  of  Methodism  upon  the  negro  race  in  the  South,  and 
of  the  Baptists,  the  only  other  body  of  Christians  who  had  ever  clone 
much  for  the  negroes,  was  seen  during  and  after  the  late  war. 
The  negroes  rose  in  no  insurrection.  They  waited  the  issue  pa- 
tiently, and  when  the  end  carne,  and  they  were  free,  they  accepted 
their  freedom  as  of  God.  No  Christian  leader  among  them  has 
ever  been  accused  of  any  agitation  that  would  issue  in  bloodshed. 
They  felt  that  God,  in  his  providence,  had  said  to  the  Christians  of 
tlie  South  :  '  Take  these  sons  of  Africa  and  train  them  for  me,  and  in 
my  time  I  will  call  for  them.'  The  congregations  of  colored  Meth. 
odists,  thrown  upon  their  own  resources,  have  nobly  met  the  demand.., 
and  now  day-schools  and  Sunday-schools  and  churches  are  found  all 
over  the  country." 


These  African-Americans  and  Africa.         241 


CHAPTER   XVIII. 

THESE  AFRICAN-AMERICANS  AND  AFRICA. 

WHAT  is  to  be  the  grand  outcome  of  this 
most  remarkable  of  modern  race  movements? 
Can  it  be  supposed  for  a  moment  that  the  tremend- 
ous energy  of  these  numerous  and  vigorous  African 
Churches  is  to  expend  itself  in  these  United  States, 
and  almost  exclusively  among  these  six  millions 
of  Americanized  Africans  and  their  descendants? 
Can  any  thoughtful  man  suppose  that  this  mighty 
Amazonian  current  of  energy — energy  material,  in- 
tellectual, and  spiritual — is  in  God's  wide  and  great 
plans  for  the  world  limited  to  the  negroes  in  this 
country  ?  or  that  the  only  relations  it  sustains  to 
any  channels  of  life  outside  of  its  own  are  incidental 
and  occasional  overflows  ? 

This  would  amount  to  saying :  Providence  brought 
them  to  America,  and  maintained  them  here  in 
wondrous  ways,  "  a  peculiar  people,"  in  the  midst  of 
a  strange  race,  of  variant  if  not  antagonistic  ten- 
dencies, in  order  that  they  only  might  be  redeemed 
from  barbarism  and  brought  to  the  knowledge  of  the 
truth. 

To  me  it  is  simply  unthinkable  that  in  the  plans 
16 


JJKJV1UC1 

Stanley 
Baptist 


242  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

of  Providence  for  the  thousands  of  Africans  in 
America  the  millions  of  Africans  in  Africa  should 
have  no  place.  To  my  view,  nothing  solves  the 
problem  of  their  providential  coming  to  this  coun- 
try, of  their  providential  maintenance  as  a  race  in 
process  of  civilization  and  Christianization,  of  their 
providential  emancipation  about  one  decade  before 
found  Livingstone — that  glorious  John  the 
of  African  civilization — that  leaves  Africa 
out. 

Here  in  the  United  States  they  have  come  to 
Christ,  the  Lord  of  all ;  here  they  have  multiplied,  as 
did  Israel  in  Egypt ;  here  they  have  the  fairest  op- 
portunity this  world  can  give  them  to  grow  into 
the  fullest  stature  of  which  they  are  capable ;  and 
here,  where  they  now  are,  the  great  body  of  them 
will,  I  do  not  question,  remain,  if  not  to  the  end  of 
time,  yet  long  beyond  the  period  when  all  doubt  of 
their  destiny  will  be  solved,  and  all  controversy 
concerning  their  relation  to  the  white  race  will  be 
happily  ended.  Here,  in  a  climate  that  suits  them, 
in  the  midst  of  a  Christian  population  friendly  to 
their  development,  under  laws  that  protect  them, 
under  conditions  the  most  favorable  possible  to 
them,  they  can  grow  into  a  strong  people,  "  maje 
reacjy  "  by  Providence  for  their  great  duties  to  the 
uncounted  millions  in  their  mother  country ;  here 
they  can  realize,  more  perfectly  than  anywhere  else 
under  the  sun,  God's  plan  and  purpose  concerning 


These  African-Americans  and  Africa.       243 

them ;  here  they  can  grow  to  be  all  that  they  can 
be,  and  thus  and  then  be  ready  to  do  all  that  they 
can  do ;  here  they  can  be  taught  till  they  can 
teach  ;  here  training-schools  may  be  established, 
whence  teachers  and  preachers  may  go  forth  from 
time  to  time  to  kindle  great  lights  of  learning  and 
saving  truth  in  the  dark  places  beyond  the  sea ; 
here,  for  holy  conquests  in  Africa,  they  can  gather 
and  drill  a  great  army  of  enlightened  and  Chris- 
tianized men  and  women ;  and  not  teachers  and 
preachers  only,  but  farmers,  mechanics,  artisans, 
men  in  all  departments  competent  to  lead  the  civ- 
ilization of  the  tribes  and  nations  in  Africa.  From 
these  shores  colonies  can  depart  from  time  to  time, 

as  God  opens  the  way  for  the  great    undertaking. 

' .«, 

These  colonies  will  follow  the  brave  explorers  who    \Ql 

fl  I 
blaze  out  the  highways  for  the  march  of  that  com-  S. 

ing   Christian    civilization   that   will   make    of  the  l)^- 
"  Dark  Continent "  one  of  the  brightest  and  noblest  (jw^ 
lands  of  the  earth. 

What  they  need  now  is  to  strengthen  their  stakes 
and  lengthen  their  cords,  to  get  themselves  ready, 
to  gather  up  their  energies  for  the  greatest  mission- 
ary movement  that  ever  was  undertaken  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  Church. 

They  are  not  ready  now.  God  overruled  slavery 
for  most  gracious  ends.  They  learned  the  Gospel 
in  slavery  as  they  could  not  have  learned  it  in  their 
native  wilds,  as  they  could  not  have  learned  it  had 


244  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

they  been  made  free  upon  their  first  landing  upon 
our  shores.  When  emancipation  —  anticipating 
Providence,  it  may  be — came  upon  them,  they  were 
not  fully  ready  for  their  new  trials,  dangers,  and 
responsibilities.  Unless  we  of  the  South  had  more 
generally  and  more  fully  realized  our  providential 
relation  to  them,  may  be  they  could  never  have  got- 
ten ready  in  slavery.  But,  granting  whatever  faults 
were  in  slavery,  it  is  certain  that  their  training, 
while  in  bondage,  had  done  much  for  them.  If 
their  antecedents,  surroundings,  and  resources  be 
considered,  it  will  be  allowed  that  they  have 
wrought  wonders  since  their  emancipation.  Their 
very  habit  of  obedience  as  slaves  enters  largely  into 
the  measure  of  their  capacity  for  independent  Church 
organization,  as  well  as  their  capacity  for  citizen- 
ship. What  could  they  have  done  with  a  Church, 
or  with  a  ballot,  or  with  themselves,  had  they  been 
converted  by  cargoes  and  turned  loose,  free,  upon 
their  landing?  But  they  are  learning  how  to  do 
Church  work,  and  they  are  learning  fast.  They 
may  lack  the  far-seeing  sagacity  of  statesmanship, 
but  they  have  what,  perhaps,  is  better  for  the 
growth  of  a  Church  or  a  nation,  the  promptings  of 
a  prophetic  instinct  as  to  their  duty  and  destiny. 
Moreover,  let  it  be  remembered,  when  we  are 
tempted  to  doubt  of  this  whole  perplexed  problem, 
that  they  have  the  guiding,  though  unseen,  hand 
of  God.  What  the  Lord  said  of  Cyrus  may  be 


TJiese  African-Americans  and  Africa.        245 

said  of  them :    "  I  have  girded  thee  though  thou 
hast  not  known  me." 

They  are  not,  it  may  be,  as  yet  fully  ready  to  lay 
broadly  and  deeply  in  Africa  the  foundations  of  a 
great  civilizing  and  sanctifying  Church.  But  they 
are  getting  ready.  And  some  of  them  I  know  have 
glimpses  now  and  then  of  the  star  that  is  to  go 
before  them  in  the  progress  of  their  race  to  its  re- 
demption. Some  of  them  see  what  men  wiser  in 
this  world's  knowledge  may  not  see,  for  they  have  a 
simple  and  steadfast  faifh  in  God  and  his  word.  , 
Some  of  the  loftier  spirits  among  them  are  already?'  • 
looking  with  longing  eyes  and  burning  hearts  to' 
the  home  of  their  fathers.  They  begin  to  hear  the 
call  of  the  man  of  Africa,  "  Come  over  and  help  us."' 
They  begin  to  realize  in  their  inmost  consciousness 
— it  flashes  on  them  while  they  sing  and  penetrates 
their  deepest  souls  while  they  pray — that  this  di- 
vine trust  rs  theirs,  to  "  preach  Jesus  and  the  resur- 
rection "  to  the  many  millions  of  their  brethren 
who  "  dwell  in  the  land  of  the  shadow  of  death." 
Their  hearts  are  stirred  ofttimes  with  the  divine 
quickenings  and  deathless  impulses  of  which  the 
hopes  of  new  nations  are  born.  And  centuries 
after  our  times,  when  our  children's  children  won- 
der why  their  fathers  ever  quarreled  or  fought,  the 
historians  of  Africa's  redemption  will  bless  the  mem- 
ory both  of  the  North  and  of  the  South. 

Will  the  white  Christians  of  America,  when  the 


246  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

time  comes,  be  ready  to  help  ?  Do  they  now  read 
aright  "  the  signs  of  the  times  "  of  the  Son  of  man  ? 
The  chief  function  of  the  white  race  in  America, 
in  its  relation  to  the  evangelization  of  Africa,  is  one 
of  help.  It  is  not  ours  to  do  this  work,  except  as 
we  help  those  whom  God  has  so  strangely  called 
and  prepared.  Some  white  Christians  are  now 
helping,  perhaps,  without  knowing  how  much  ;  per- 
haps, without  looking  beyond  the  poor  negroes  of 
their  own  communities ;  perhaps,  without  a  thought 
of  the  mighty  outcome  of  it  all  in  other  lands,  and 
in  the  years  and  generations  to  come.  Every  dollar 
consecrated  to  giving  them  the  Gospel  while  they 
were  slaves,  and  since  they  were  made  free  ;  every 
sermon  preached  to  them ;  every  lesson  taught  them  ; 
every  good  book  printed  for  them — all  has  been  help- 
ing forward  the  salvation  of  a  continent.  And  when 
the  day  of  God  declares  all  things,  although  it  may 
appear  that  thousands  of  slave  owners  in  the  old 
days,  now  happily  gone  forever,  did  not  realize  their 
sacred  relation  to  this  great  race  movement  toward 
the  cross  of  our  common  Lord,  yet  will  it  be  found 
that  thousands  did  recognize  and  discharge,  to  the 
best  of  their  ability,  their  duty  to  these  sons  of  the 
strangers.  That  day  will  reveal  the  love  and  "  com- 
passion on  souls  "  that  inspired  Capers,  Andrew, 
Pierce,  Mercer,  Crawford,  M'Intosh,  and  the  thou- 
sands of  nameless  immortals  who  helped  to  bring 
nearly  half  a  million  Southern  negroes  to  Christ 


These  African-A  mericans  and  Africa.       247 

Jesus,  while  they  were  yet  in  their  house  of-  bond- 
age. And  it  will  reveal  thousands  of  godly  men 
and  women  who,  inheriting  the  burdens  and  re- 
sponsibilities of  slavery,  so  recognized  the  Christ 
in  their  servants  that  the  King  will  say  to  them: 
"  Inasmuch  as  ye  have  done  it  unto  one  of  the  least 
of  these  my  brethren,  ye  have  done  it  unto  me." 

This  great  preparation  that  is  to  "  make  straight 
the  way  of  the  Lord  "  is  being  helped  forward  every 
day  and  hour;  it  is  helped  fonvard  every  time  a 
negro  is  taught  a  truth,  or  is  lifted  up,  or  in  any 
way  is  placed  in  a  better  position  to  make  a  man. 
It  is  helped  forward  every  time  a  negro  school  is 
established,  a  negro  church  built,  a  negro  family 
toned  up  to  better  thinking  and  better  living.  In 
a  word,  every  good  thing  that  has  been  done,  that 
is  being  done,  that  may  yet  be  done  for  the  negro 
here,  is  helping  him  to  get  ready  for  the  moral  con- 
quest of  a  continent. 

But  when  I  ask,  "  Will  the  white  Christians  of 
America,  when  the  time  comes,  be  ready?"  I  do 
not  mean  this  unconscious  co-operation  with  a 
great  movement.  I  mean  the  clear-eyed  vision  of 
a  great  duty  and  a  great  opportunity;  I  mean  the 
conscious,  deliberate  recognition  of  that  duty  in 
our  broadest,  boldest  plans  for  the  future  work  of 
the  Church  ;  I  mean  the  broad-minded,  true-hearted, 
and  courageous  attempt,  when  the  time  comes,  to 
perform  that  duty  to  the  utmost  of  human  ability. 


•xr  w 

248  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

In  this  work  all  good  people  in  this  country 
should  heartily  join ;  for  all  are  debtors  to  the 
Africans  in  America.  All  Christians  in  this  coun- 
try should  help  them  to  get  ready.  When  the  day 
comes,  and  it  cannot  be  far  distant,  for  them  to 
enter  fully  upon  the  work,  then  every  Christian  in 
the  land  should  help  them  to  carry  it  on.  Some 
have  already  gone  as  advanced  guards  of  the  coming 
hosts.  Some  left  Nashville,  Tennessee,  in  1880, 
who  had  been  made  ready  in  one  of  the  great  train- 
ing schools  of  the  Congregationalists.  And  a  few 
have  gone  from  other  Churches.  There  are  a  few 
white  men  and  women  at  work  in  different  parts 
of  Africa ;  they  have  gone  before.  In  Sierra  Leone, 
in  Senegambia,  in  the  Ashantee  Country,  on  the 
Lower  Coast,  the  Coast  Country  near  the  Cape,  in 
Liberia,  and  among  the  tribes  nearest  the  British 
dependencies,  are  mission  stations  where  the  true 
light  shines.  Thousands  have  already  come  to  the 
light  and  have  rejoiced  in  it.  The  work  that  has 
been  done  is  one  of  glorious  preparation.  But  the 
missionary  movement  that  is  to  save  the  continent 
must  flow  out  of  the  African  Churches  in  the  United 
States.  "A  tidal  wave  of  blessing,"  to  use  the 
words  of  Bishop  Holsey,  one  of  their  own  race, 
"  must  sweep  back  upon  the  shores  of  Africa." 

When  the  colored  Baptists  in  the  United  States 
send  missionaries  to  Africa,  then  let  the  entire  Bap- 
tist power  of  America  stand  back  of  them  and  help 


These  African-Americans  and  Africa.        249 

and  nourish  them  as  there  may  be  need.  When 
the  Congregationalist  negroes  send  missionaries, 
let  the  entire  Congregationalist  power  help  them  in 
all  their  work.  When  the  Methodist  negroes  begin 
to  send  out  missionaries  in  good  earnest,  when 
they  begin  to  organize  "  Mission  Conferences  "  in 
Africa,  then  in  this  work,  if  never  before,  or  after, 
or  elsewise,  let  the  entire  power  of  American  Meth- 
odism unite  to  forward  their  great  design.  The 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  has  in  her  or- 
ganization now  few  names  of  the  negro  race,  but 
she  has  children  in  every  colored  Church  in  America, 
and  they  call  to  her  to  help  them ;  and  this  Church 
will  hear  the  cry  of  her  children,  and  she  will  help 
them. 

In  such  a  work  as  this  at  least  all  Methodism,  I 
say  not  American  Methodism  only,  should  unite 
as  one  body  and  one  soul.  But  the  call  is  pre-emi- 
nently to  American  Methodism  and  peculiarly  to 
American  Episcopal  Methodism.  This  pre-eminent 
and  special  call  grows  out  of  the  relations  these 
Methodisms  sustain  to  each  other  and  to  the 
negroes ;  also  out  of  the  opportunity  God  gives 
them,  as  indicated  and  measured  by  the  greatness 
of  their  numbers  and  their  power.  If  once  our 
brother  in  black  was  the  innocent  "  occasion  "  of  an 
unfraternal  parting,  may  it  not,  in  the  good  provi- 
dence of  God,  be  some  day  his  high  office  to  unite 
us  again,  at  least  in  all  the  love  and  sympathy  of  a 


250  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

genuine  and  deathless  brotherhood  of  mutual  help 
and  genuine  co-operation  ? 

Do  we  not  owe  this  debt  to  Africa  ?  Her  sons 
helped  mightily  to  clear  the  forests  before  the 
march  of  our  population.  Their  toils  have  added 
untold  millions  to  the  wealth  of  our  country.  Their 
hands  have  helped  to  build  up  great  cities  and 
great  highways  in  all  our  States.  They,  at  least, 
are  not  to  blame  for  the  horrors  and  exasperations 
of  our  fratricidal  war.  They  deserve  everlasting 
honor  for  their  heroic  patience  and  Christian  wait- 
ing during  that  fiery  trial  of  their  faith.  Modern 
times  have  not  given  to  the  world  a  sublimer  ex- 
pression of  a  steadfast  faith  in  the  all-wise  provi- 
dence of  God. 

When  God's  time  comes,  and  surely  we  are  near- 
ing  the  hour  when  the  day  will  break  upon  them 
and  us,  let  us  be  found  among  them  who  know  the 
"  day  of  the  Lord."  We  may  be  sure  of  it,  God's 
hand  is  upon  this  people.  When  he  speaks  to  them 
"  that  they  move  forward,"  as  he  did  to  Israel  on 
the  shores  of  the  Red  Sea,  let  us  be  sure  that  the 
"  pillar  of  cloud  and  of  fire  "  will  go  before  them, 
and  that  the  "Captain  of  the  Lord's  host"  will  lead 
them  on. 

When  the  children  of  Israel  went  out  of  Egypt, 
under  the  "  high  hand  "  and  the  "  outstretched 
arm  "  of  the  God  of  their  fathers,  they  "  spoiled  the 
Egyptians,"  for  their  heathen  oppressors  were  hard 


These  African-Americans  and  Africa.       251 

of  heart  and  would  not  do  them  justice,  nor  "  let 
Israel  go,"  nor  forward  them  on  their  journey.  But 
we  are  not  of  Egypt;  we  are  Christ's,  the  Lord's. 
We  must  and  we  will,  in  gratitude  to  God  and  to 
these  our  brothers,  in  the  love  of  humanity  and  in 
the  love  of  Christ,  send  them  away  on  their  divine 
mission  with  "  blessings  "  and  with  "  gifts." 

Is  there  a  more  inspiring  thought  in  connection 
with  the  future  of  the  Christian  religion  ?  Millions 
of  Christianized  negroes  in  America  sending  and 
carrying  the  Gospel,  that  alone  brings  life  and  im- 
mortality to  light,  to  uncounted  millions  in  their 
native  Africa,  while  millions  of  Christians  of  the 
white  race  join  hands  and  hearts  in  helping  on  the 
glorious  work.  There  never  existed  in  the  cir- 
cumstances and  relations  of  two  races  such  an  op- 
portunity of  doing  missionary  work  on  a  continent- 
wide  scale.  Would  God  there  were  some  Christian 
Moses  or  Paul  to  lead  the  triumphant  march ! 
There  never  was  a  work  for  God  and  man  in  which 
the  good  angels  would  more  gladly  join. 

O,  Thou  Christ  of  God  !  Thou  "  mightiest  among 
the  holy  and  holiest  among  the  mighty!"  Thou 
who  didst  take  upon  thyself  "the  form  of  a  servant" 
that  Thou  mightest  make  all  men  free,  give  to  us  the 
"  fullness  of  Thy  spirit,"  that  we,  Thy  unworthy  dis- 
ciples, may  have  wisdom  and  grace  and  courage  to 
make  ready  for  the  duties  of  the  morrow  by  faith- 
fully performing  all  our  duty  of  to-day,  toward  these 


252  OUR  BROTHER  IN  BLACK. 

our  brethren,  who  came  unwillingly  to  our  guardian- 
ship long  before  our  fathers  were  born  ;  whom  Thou 
hast  kept  as  "  a  peculiar  people  "  in  our  midst,  and 
hast  blessed  beyond  any  people  who  were  ever  en- 
slaved ;  whom  Thou  hast  made  free  by  many  and 
strange  providences,  and  to  whom  Thou  hast  given 
a  message  of  hope  and  salvation  for  multiplied 
millions  of  their  kindred  who  wait  for  Thy  coming 
as  "those  who  watch  for  the  morning!  " 


THE  END. 


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